BackTales from a ‘hamam’
The Karnataka government has finalized a draft policy to improve the lives of transgenders, but daily brutalities continue
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Shreya, 24, is happy to call herself a transgender, though the others in her hamam—where she has lived for the past eight years—would, she says, identify as women. A hamam is a household where hijras live as family. Shreya stays with four hijras at Yelahanka, a Bengaluru suburb.
The reason she feels confident of her identity has a lot to do with an April Supreme Court judgement that granted legal recognition to hijras and other transgender communities.
The order, passed on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa), said transgenders ought to be accorded Other Backward Classes (OBC) status, which would entitle the community to medical benefits, reservation in educational institutions and government jobs. It also directed states to run sensitization programmes to address the stigma that Shreya and other hijras face.
Shreya earns through “collection"—asking for money at traffic signals—but says that given a chance, she would like a job that would help cover their rent of ₹ 5,000. “I would like to have a regular job and come home after doing 8 hours of work. I’d rather work as a housemaid than go begging. At least I would avoid facing society’s humiliation and police harassment," she says. At the moment, her earning ranges from ₹ 50-500 a day. There are days when no one in the hamam earns anything. The money is split equally between all of them.
The harassment faced by Shreya and other hijras employed in both the sex trade and begging, is immense. On 25 November, close to 167 transgenders were detained at a beggars’ colony in Hoysalas, Bengaluru, under The Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975. Gowthaman Ranganathan, a queer rights lawyer with the Alternative Law Forum, a Bengaluru-based, not-for-profit, legal aid organization, said that in many cases, “the police walked into the homes of the hijras and dragged them out". Activists say transgenders were picked up arbitrarily from the streets, though many of them were not beggars. They were, however, released a day later after protests from queer groups.
“If someone commits any crime, his name and photo appear in the paper but if anyone from our community commits a crime, then we’re all dragged into it to face the collective rap of society. They never stop to think of the shame and hurt we feel when this happens," says Shreya.
Police atrocities against the community are not new but a 2011 amendment to the State Police Act, which introduced a section, 36A, to control the “objectionable activities of eunuchs", has left them even more anxious. The section requires the police to maintain a register of “eunuchs" in their jurisdiction.
Activists say this translates into profiling based on gender, and is a violation of rights. Even the use of the word eunuch is, they say, an outdated and offensive term.
“Even if we’re just standing by the road, they come and harass us. They don’t show any respect towards our rights as citizens. They say, ‘Why would we respect you? You’re a hijra!’ They don’t trouble the women sex workers under the Hebbal flyover, but if we go and do sex work in that area, they say, ‘Is this the only place you hijras found?’ and pelt us with stones," Shreya says.
After the Nalsa judgement, based on the recommendations of the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment, the state government’s planning commission recently finalized a policy draft on transgenders. Some of the highlights include a special cell in the state Women’s Development Corporation, counselling centres, action against parents who desert or abuse their transgender children, a monthly pension for destitute transgenders above 55 years, and job-generation schemes, including a self-employment grant of ₹ 30,000.
Once it’s finalized, a monitoring committee will be set up to oversee the implementation of the policy.
Activists believe Tamil Nadu’s Aravani Welfare Board, set up in 2008, is a good model for other states. That year, the J. Jayalalithaa government accorded transgenders official third-gender status and initiated programmes to issue ID cards and provide financial support, including a monthly pension for old and destitute transgenders. In 2013-14, the state government allocated ₹ 89.16 lakh for monthly pension at the rate of ₹ 1,000 a month.
“Six months ago, the Karnataka government announced a pension of ₹ 500. But this is 2014 and what good is a pension of ₹ 500? Even the rent for this house is around ₹ 5,000," says Shreya, sceptical of the provisions of the draft policy. She has good reason to be. In 2010, the Karnataka government had issued an order through the department of women and child development, to provide housing loans as well as access to government loans to transgenders. Shubha Chacko, who runs Aneka, a Bengaluru-based non-profit involved in grass-roots, policy and research work on issues of women, gender and sexuality, estimates that 30-40 transgenders were given ₹ 20,000 each, and that the livelihood training they received through this scheme was limited to making flower garlands.
Chacko, who has been working with companies to help bring transgenders and former sex workers into the formal work sector, says that the challenges on getting transpersons employed are twofold. “We help corporates address the many myths and misconceptions they have by holding sessions with the staff. We also address some of their real concerns with policies like health, toilets, etc. At the other end, we talk to transgenders about the ways of working in a corporate world—what it would involve, what would be acceptable without changing their identity or who they are." The Nalsa judgement has assured companies of the legality of these initiatives, says Chacko.
The Karnataka government’s draft policy also includes provisions for below-poverty-line ration cards and educational grants as per OBC reservation, besides legal sanction for marriage/live-in partnership and grants for sex reassignment surgery. The last would certainly help Christie Raj, a community correspondent with Video Volunteers, a community non-profit media group that trains grass-roots activists to report on local issues. Raj left home at the age of 17, because his family wasn’t supportive of his gender identity. Raj was born a female, but identifies as a man. “People don’t really know much about us, unlike hijras. Even Shikhandi in the Mahabharat is mistaken as a hijra though she was born as female. People think lesbians and female-to-male transgenders are a Western import." Raj, who earns ₹ 5,000 a month, says a reassignment surgery is too expensive. “I want to continue my education and get a good job. I don’t have any financial support from my family," he says.
The Nalsa judgement has thrown up many queries. In September, the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment sought clarifications from the Supreme Court on including gays, lesbians and bisexuals within the term “transgender", submitting that “the concept of gay, lesbian and bisexual is based on sexual orientation whereas transgender has to do with the person’s own deep sense of gender identity". It also sought a clarification on whether the Centre and state governments must include all transgender persons in the list of Other Backward Classes suo motu or as per the procedure established by the National Commission of Backward Classes, with the recommendation that “clubbing all of them into one category of OBC might not appear prudent or practical as transgender persons do not maintain caste or community identities". “While this is still under review by the National Commission for Backward Classes, the Dwarakanath Commission report (which recommended that the transgender community be included in the category of more backward communities that would then entitle them to government benefits) in 2010 had already recommended OBC status for transgenders to the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission," says Ranganathan.
For Shreya, however, the decision can’t come soon enough.
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