Download Pdf
Transgender persons in India want to be treated as citizens. Is this too much to ask for?
Transgender persons (hijras
or
aravanis) in India are
visible in public, ridiculed in crude comedy in popular cinema, shunned
and feared but tolerated at rituals where their presence is supposed to
be auspicious. Otherwise, they have been non-citizens until very
recently, their gender lacking in legal recognition, inhabitants of a
zone where official identification is absent. The effects of this have
been devastating for the community. Not only can they not avail of
social and economic benefits but they cannot participate in any
political or socio-economic process which requires an officially
endorsed identity. The government’s response to the community’s demands
has been sporadic and piecemeal. Recently, Maharashtra organised the
first (in the state) conclave for the transgender community in
collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
which was inaugurated by the chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan. While
Chavan proposed a transgender welfare board, there was silence on their
basic and long-pending demands for training in income-generating
activities, as also for provision of housing and proper enumeration.
Many sexual minorities’ rights activists were sceptical, no doubt, in
view of the forthcoming elections.
Official recognition of transgender people is slowly taking shape.
The Aadhaar card has a column for marking the sex as transgender. The
Delhi Election Commission has been organising registration camps for
marginalised sections, including transgender persons. Karnataka’s state
transport department has included an “others” box in the application for
a driving licence. And, the 2011 Census counted transgender persons,
for the first time, separately instead of including them in the “males”
category as was being done earlier. However, while these are welcome
moves, given the educational and socio-economic backwardness of the bulk
of the transgender community and the odds stacked against them, they
are simply not enough. Legal rights do not necessarily translate into
social and cultural acceptance, and do not automatically lead to
recognition by the various arms of the state.
Nowhere is this truer perhaps than of the treatment that the
transgender community endures from two arms of government: the police
and the public health services system. Media reports and personal
testimonies frequently document the insensitivity and even brutality
transgender persons are subjected to by the police. A study by the
Karnataka branch of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties of the
hijra/kothi community in Bangalore in 2003 analyses the “cultural and
social contexts that inform the limited choices, for example, of sex
work and begging”. It also details the day-to-day sexual violence,
harassment and abuse they suffer from a society that “fear(s) sexual and
gender non-conformity”. These findings could be extrapolated to the
rest of the country except perhaps Tamil Nadu. Other reports and
activists point out that HIV programmes rarely consider the mental
health needs of transgender people and that the staff at the testing and
HIV management centres treat them like “freaks”.
Where the state has made an effort to reach out, the community has
benefited in some measure. Tamil Nadu is a case in point. It set up the
Aravanigal/Transgender Women Welfare Board in 2008 to undertake social
welfare measures and the department of social welfare has also attempted
to ensure counselling for families with transgender children and impart
special training to schoolteachers. India’s neighbour Nepal has a
“third gender” category since its Supreme Court ordered scrapping of all
discriminatory laws (against sexual minorities) in 2007.
Sexuality, especially with regard to sexual minorities, is a nuanced
and multilayered aspect that requires sensitive understanding and
handling. This kind of nuanced approach may be beyond the Indian
bureaucratic system at present but the basic demands of the transgender
community must be accepted on an urgent basis. These include: protection
in police custody, sensitisation of police personnel, comprehensive sex
education programmes in schools, vocational training centres, access to
free and concessional housing schemes and free sex realignment or
reconstruction surgery (SRS) in select government hospitals (this is
available in Tamil Nadu). The last mentioned demand involves legal and
health issues. While there is legal confusion over SRS and the
documentary implications that follow, limited or lack of access to safe
and competent SRS can lead to major health problems.
There is no doubt that the transgender community in India will have
to traverse a long and uphill path in the quest for equal rights as
Indian citizens. Delivery of the promises made by politicians and
governments will have to be reviewed and followed up. The other
humungous task involves social awareness and education campaigns to
change society’s attitude towards them.
Download Pdf
