Transgenders in India

TRANSGENDERS IN INDIA

The Transgender society in India and their Rights and Stories.

      India’s Supreme Court ruled on April, 2014 that official documents must allow transgender people to identify as a third gender and directed the federal and state governments to include transgender people, known as hijras, in welfare programs such as education, health care, and job programs.

      Though The Parliament has suggested that the government should consider reservations for the transgender community and even after extending employment opportunities for the transgender in The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd., it seems that they yet stand to be unacceptable for the Indian society. We talk about humanity but forget about it when it comes to the Transgender or the hijras. We forget that it is not by choice that they are what they are and here is where the violence against the transgender starts.
     The Constitution provides for the fundamental right to equality, and tolerates no discrimination on the grounds of sex, caste, creed or religion. The Constitution also guarantees political rights and other benefits to every citizen. But the third community (transgenders) continues to be ostracized. The Constitution affirms equality in all spheres but the moot question is whether it is being applied.

      Emotional, physical as well as sexual violence is what they have to go through in their daily lives and yet they don’t get the platform to voice their problems. Many gender non-conforming students drop out of school due to harassment and discrimination. In 2014 the Indian Government legally recognized hijras as the third gender and said that they plan to offer more employment opportunities to this community but when are we Indians going to recognize them as humans too?  

      Hijras usually live in closed communities or Deras. Outsiders are rarely given access to these Deras. A kothi, is an effeminate man or boy who takes on a female gender role in same sex relationships. They live on their own and often have peculiar relationship with their neighbors.
      It is difficult to disclose their trans identity to their families as most of them come from rural non-metropolitan areas. Most of them resort to begging or sex work to survive.

     Not many of us know about Koovagam, a small village in South India where they are cherished and celebrated just as they are. Numerous of them come to the country's biggest transgender festival in Koovagam, a place where they can do all that the society forbids them from doing. They get married and they participate in a beauty pageants, Miss Koovagam. The Miss Koovagam for them is like the Miss universe. They worship the Lord Aravan, Arjun's son and considers him to be their God. The marriage ceremony takes place in the Aravan Temple. Thousands of transgenders here get married to the Lord Aravan and consider it to be very special. On the last day of the festival, Lord Aravan is sacrificed and all his wives mourn at his death.
        Yes that is how sad their lives are. They do not even have the right of burial after death in any cemetery. They are buried under the grounds of their deras or residing place. Yet we do not fail to make their lives hell even while they're alive. How would it be to have no gender? How would it be to be excluded from all that socialising? It wasn't their choice. Then why do we never fail to punish them for it? They don't need to change. We need to change our thoughts.