Alien In One?s Own Land: Rights Of Transgender Persons

By Shivani Misra

Sexuality is an issue that has created social divides. Sexual minorities have been oppressed in our society on the ground of them being deviant. Their existence has been listed as unnatural.  Therefore, the issues related to the rights of sexual minorities also do not find place in the top agendas of the governments and of human rights movements. The issue is often lost in the complexities of problems that a society faces.  However, the moment the state or any other organized association or person impeaches upon the private acts of an individual without sound reasoning, it impeaches upon the liberty of the individual. Liberty, being a much cherished right of modern democracies does not and should not stand an unreasoned incursion. This article is centred on an assault to the liberty of certain classes of people; it is centred on the continued denial of equality, and the prolonged indifference and apathy of the society towards persons who have been marginalized because of their gender identity.

India has approximately 700,000 transgender persons. These persons are usually rejected from their families and face varied forms of social exclusion. Being denied of proper education, health care and means to employment, they are most commonly forced into forms of ritualized begging. Gender roles have acquired a very strong position in the Indian society. Any kind of deviance from the expected stereotypes is seen as unwanted. Thus, transgender persons become easy targets of discrimination in the household that subsequently manifests itself to greater and graver forms. A UNDP study in 2007 documented that in the past one year, the percentage of those transgenders and ‘Hijras’ who reported: forced sex is 46%; physical abuse is 44%; verbal abuse is 56%; blackmail for money is 31%; and threat to life is 24%. Legal issues like recognition of gender identity, status employment, access to health benefits etc. becomes a major challenge for the gender variant.  Legal recognition of gender identity as a transgender is a major obstacle in the Indian context to achieve the implementation of other rights. Legal recognition of the gender status of the transgender people is also critical for the right to contest and right to vote in the elections. The Election Commission has introduced the option of ‘other’ in the voter’s identity card and indicated that ‘Hijras’ can vote or contest as ‘other’. However, the legal validity of this executive order is relation to confirming gender identity is not clear. Further, the lack of legal recognition has important consequences in getting government ration shop card, passport, and bank accounts. The Tamil Nadu government, in particular has taken up positive measures for changing transgender people’s birth name and sex in official gazette and official identity documents either after realising their gender identity or undergoing sex transition surgeries. Notably, Tamil Nadu state government through its Transgender Welfare Board constituted a district level screening committee in each district to certify and provide an identity card which specifies name, address etc. This effort is touted to be the first in India and even in the whole Asia-pacific region. After its inception in 2008, the board is projected to address a variety of concerns of transgender people that includes education, income generation and other social security measures.

Another improvement in the official position of the transgender people globally was seen in Bangladesh. On 11^th of November 2013, the Bangladeshi government gave official status to the transgender community. It recognized the existence of such a community and thus, state benefits would flow out from such recognition. This means that education, healthcare facilities and subsidized food grains would be available. The Bangladeshi government has also allocated a separate fund for the education and training of the transgender people.  Officially, The Bangladesh Ministry of Social Welfare claims that there are about 10,000 of them, but activists claim that the number is higher. The recognition is being seen as a landmark decision for a conservative Bangladesh, where sexual and reproductive health rarely talked about even by policymakers. This policy move by Bangladesh has been duly acknowledged by the UN Director for the Asia Pacific region. Therefore, it is seen that the legislature is the prime institution for enacting laws that could change the societal perception towards the taboo that revolves around the third gender. Equality in gender identities can be achieved by the legislature and the civil society working in tandem to break the divides that history has created in segregating and isolating a portion of society based on their gender identities. Inclusion in all spheres of society should be an apparent reality, for equality must not only be present but must be seen to be present.

The author is pursuing law from IP University, Delhi. She is deeply interested in human rights and education for children. She believes that a sensitized youth can eradicate any problem that the society faces. She can be reached at shivanimisra1011@gmail.com