Telangana: Clause for screening rubs salt to transgenders' wound

Hyderabad: As the transgender Bill is in the pipeline, leaders from the community are pushing to remove a crucial clause in Bill which is related to screening.

The transgender Bill has a clause which mandates a transgender person to procure a certificate, stating the physical status from the specially constituted district screening committee, which has doctors, psychologists, experts and a transgender person as its members.

The community feels that this clause would apply more salt to the wound as they had been ill-treated for years. Community leaders said that they do not want to strip in front of people to prove their gender status.

However, this clause is crucial to decide the beneficiaries of certain provisions like job reservation for transgenders, which are envisaged in the Bill.

“We want locus standi of the individual to be the only determinant clause here. The Supreme Court’s NALSA judgement states that it is the individual alone who can state whether he/she is a transgender or not,” said Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli, a transgender activist and a member of the Telangana Hijra Intersex Samiti. Currently, many countries bank on this method to identify transgenders.

Earlier, the government bodies, which have been involved in identification of transpersons, used the ‘gurus’ who are the matriarchal head of a Hijra community, as the certifying authority. This is restricted to the Hijra community.

However, the method failed to meet its objective when it comes to lesbians and bisexuals. “Not every transgender person is a hijra or is involved in the guru-chella system. They are many transgenders who are transmen,” noted Ms Rachana, a transgender activist.