Ritwik Mehta, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology
Abstract
The word ‘transgender’ still leaves chaos in the minds of Indians as our society has always recognized only two genders - male or female. If you ask anyone on the street about who a transgender is, they might laugh and say the local words like ‘hijras’ etc. But in reality, no one actually knows who a transgender is? They are like us, our classmates, our co-workers, our neighbours and our friends! Transgender people are people who earlier recogmize themselves as of one gender but later on identify themselves as of other gender. Eg, A male later on identifies himself as female and vice-versa. The Indian laws for transgenders is in sharp contrast to International Human Rights Law which is guided by the principles of universality, equality and non-discrimination. The Hijra community are one of those who are forced into begging, sex work and collecting money from families during the marriage ceremonies or on occasion of a newborn.
Article 14 and Article 21 use the expression “person” while Article 15, 16 and 19 use the word “citizen” which clearly indicates a gender-neutral approach towards justice.The level of discrimination can be clearly depicted from the fact that prior to Census 2011, the data about transgenders was never collected. Thus, according to the 2011 Census, there are 4,87,803 transgenders in India having a literacy rate of just 56.07% as compared to 74% of the general public. This further exposes the reality that transgender people arent’t getting education as they drop out of school/college due to discrimination. The National Human Rights Commission Report (2018) says that 99% of transgender people face social rejections multiple times. 57% of the people from this community want to go for a sex reassignment surgery but can’t due to lack of money.
The task of enrolling the transgenders in the electoral roll involves submission of a legal document from the oath commissioner proving their credentials, and then declare this identity in at least two newspapers and then obtain the signatures of their parents/guardians on the legal documents. While the Election Commission is striving hard to cover all the eligible voters, they have made it more difficult for the transgenders to get a voter card!
India has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This makes it an obligation for Indian Constitition to recongnise the rights of Transgender people.
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