Indian Navy sacks sailor for changing gender

Visakhapatnam: The Indian Navy has discharged a sailor who underwent a sex reassignment surgery last year at a private facility while on leave.

Sources said that the sailor, Manish Kumar Giri, had joined the mechanical engineering wing seven years ago. He was married and had a child. He returned to the INS Eksila in Vizag after undergoing the gender change surgery in 2016. 

Giri may not get any pension as per the norms because it is mandatory to serve at least 15 years to become eligible for it. 

Sources said that Giri had violated the terms and conditions under which he joined the force as a Indian male citizen. 

Hiring norms breached: Navy
The Navy is inducting a small number of women as officers, and only men as sailors, soldiers and airmen.

In its order, the Navy said Giri “chose to undergo irreversible gender re-assignment on his own accord, whilst on leave wilfully altering his gender status from the one he was recruited for at the time of his induction.”

This, it said, had breached the recruitment regulations and eligibility criteria for his employment as a sailor in the Indian Navy. 

The existing service rules and regulations do not permit the sailor’s continued employment owing to his altered gender status, medical condition and resultant employability restrictions, the Navy said.