A bereaved young woman who wants to raise her child is at centre of a story that has left everyone baffled about legal and social intricacies

AHMEDABAD: The first thing that strikes one about Pintoo ‘bhai’ is the gutka she continually chews. The brave demeanour she presents is perhaps meant to mask her vulnerability. Because Pintoo bhai is after all a woman who used to live with her partner, Binal, in a shanty in the Ramol area of the city. The young couple even had a child through the IVF technique.

Pintoo’s only concern at this moment centres on her two-year-old daughter Khushi. “I am worried about her safety. My in-laws wanted to take her away, but I have managed to settle the matter,” she said. “But now that you have come here and people will come to know about me, how will I stay here? I will have to find another place. Do you realise how difficult it will be for me to face society?”

Pintoo, 26, is a woman masquerading as a man and fighting society single-handedly. She has made a choice to live like a man. But with no support from her family and a traditional and patriarchal society that is quick to judge people, will she be able to cope with the stigma of being labelled a lesbian? Pintoo lived with her ‘wife’ Binal in a slum in Ramol for the past four years. While Binal worked as a nurse in a hospital, Pintoo used to drive a chakda to eke out a living. In fact, that’s how the couple met. Binal used to take a chakda driven by Pintoo from her village Bareja to Ahmedabad. They eventually eloped because of family opposition.

Source by dnaindia.com