How surveillance is used as a means to monitor trans bodies and lives

Most of our participants [in the research we conducted] have expressed that surveillance, both online and physical, has increased in the past few years in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, with the increase in CCTV cameras, the growing number of police personnel, different technologies and app surveillance, face detection techniques, and Regional Transport Office (RTO) rules for scanning barcodes or QR codes on vehicles. These measures have special implications for the lives of transgender persons.

Since many transgender persons do sex work, the increase in cameras, especially in hotspots, has made their lives more difficult. Abha narrated, ‘Two–three years ago, we were able to stand together for sex work, and the client would come choose, pick one of us and go. But now we need to stand separately for sex work. Before the cameras were put up, there was a sense of security because we stood together for clients, but now there is no sense of security.’

Raees mentioned that, ‘[T]he number of traffic signals has also increased in Lucknow. Earlier, there were traffic signals at only two intersections. Now they have put them up at every intersection. This has happened in the last three months. And there are CCTV cameras at almost every intersection. They weren’t there earlier.’...

Policing is particularly visible and felt by trans persons in places such as public parks. A group of kothis, during an FGD, mentioned that there has been an increase in the number of police personnel in parks, which were used as cruising spots and hotspots. They also stated difficulties in doing their work due to the constant presence of the police. Some of them mentioned that they give money to the police so that they can continue doing their work. Deep said, ‘Earlier, it wasn’t like this in Lucknow. This commission system started only a year ago. Since then, it has increased a lot. You will find police officers stationed every two kilometres.’

Pink Booths, a new initiative by the UP government meant for the protection of women, is yet another mechanism through which the police keep surveillance on transgender persons. Rima mentions, ‘Pink Booths near Charbagh have women police, and whenever they see a kothi or zenani, she [they] beats us with a baton—even if we are just standing or sitting in an area.’

Participants also mentioned the Anti-Romeo Squad, which were police-sanctioned vigilante groups that would randomly beat up young men and women near colleges or parks. Targeting young men or transgender persons for the way they look, or enforcing their own code of moral policing, they not only create a feeling of fear of the police but also use it as a way to control those who do not ‘fit’ into a particular understanding of society.

The increasing police visibility is particularly worrying because it points to a situation where an already brutalising power has become more present and equipped with more authority, without concomitant accountability. What we see, therefore, is a shift, especially with the blurring lines between the police and the paramilitary, whereby the exception of militaristic policing is becoming the rule. The experiences shared by the participants also point to a growing nexus between police and state forces, and groups exercising ideological dominance and power, and thus the separation between the State and religious and majoritarian ideologies is blurring, putting trans people in a further vulnerable state without any recourse. This nexus is also replicated in how surveillance plays out, with those opposing majoritarian ideologies being seen as threats, as suspicious, and therefore in need of constant monitoring.

In addition to the police recording public events and protests, the government has been creating an electronic toll collection system to move towards a more cashless mode of transaction. This, in turn, creates a database of information that can be used to surveil any suspicious vehicles. At the same time, new rules are being put in place by different transport regulation authorities, such as the requirement of having a QR code, which further aids the process of data collection on a person’s movements.

Ravi shared: ‘New Rules of RTO come into force which mandate a QR scan code. I was on my bike … [and] police started to ask me about the QR code. My vehicle was registered before 2019, and so I said it is not mandatory for me, but they still asked for money and started to inquire about my gender identity.’

Thus, there is surveillance on one’s mobility at all times. After the 2019 government move to standardise vehicle documents, RCs were introduced across the country, with provisions for a microchip, QR code and Near Field Communication Technology (NFC) like the ones used by ATM cards. The QR code, along with NFC technology, ensures that the State has details of the vehicle and a record of every place the person is travelling to. These fears about surveillance of one’s movements are not unfounded, as technology experts have shared similar concerns: ‘If the name/gender of the vehicle owner is available, this can be a significant risk for women who can be more easily tracked and targeted by violent men waiting near identified cars.’ There are similar risks for transgender persons, whose data is at stake not just in the hands of the State but also cybercriminals.

The rise in surveillance creates many pressing issues, especially for those who are from marginalised communities, given the use of surveillance to increase control over individuals’ bodies. As data security experts have noted, ‘Surveillance is about relations of power and domination’ and it ‘almost always reinscribes existing power equations— because it generally aims to control, even eliminate, those who “deviate” from the norm.’ Surveillance is often an instrument that aids in policing norms. Transgression of gender norms is viewed as deviance, and those who are seen as deviant are criminalised and harassed by the State. Since colonial times, transgender communities have been seen as ‘criminal tribes’, a practice that continues even today, with sections under the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, until recently allowing the police to ‘maintain registers with names and addresses of trans persons who could be “reasonably suspected” of “undesirable activities”’. This historic association with deviance and criminality means that transgender people are disproportionately targeted, monitored and controlled through surveillance measures. Such surveillance, data collection and sharing also take away the right to self-determination and control over information sharing that transgender people should have, especially in deciding with whom to share their gender identity.

This expanded use of surveillance, data collection and database generation, in the name of security—particularly in the name of protecting women—far from serving its intended purpose for most marginalised groups, enables and equips the State to monitor those whom it views as suspicious on flimsy grounds (often linked to marginalised identities related to gender, sexuality, profession, political leaning, religion, caste or ethnicity, among others); allows selective application of the law against such individuals; and is therefore discriminatory, arbitrary and violative of the fundamental rights of an individual.

Excerpted with permission from Queer Directions, an imprint of Westland Books.