Chennai: Rakshika Raj, the transwoman nurse recently in the news for exposing the non-implementation of the Supreme Court's historic 2014 judgment in support of transgenders in the state has finally received justice, at least for the time being.
Rakshika who received a nursing degree last year has been jobless for the past one year, due to government's failure to pass a GO to implement the Supreme Court's judgment. In 2014, the Supreme Court had ruled that transgenders are eligible to all rights as every other citizen of the country and can apply for education and employment under the 'other' gender category.
In an earlier interview to Deccan Chronicle, she had said "The Tamil Nadu Nurses and Midwives Council (TNNMC) does not have a separate box for transgenders. When I approached the council's registrar regarding the matter, they asked me to tick the female box. But I don't identify myself as a female. All my documents have been changed to identify myself as a transgender which I am extremely proud of. Identifying as another gender is forgery.”She subsequently filed a writ petition against state government.
With the court ruling in her favour on Thursday, she can heave a sigh of relief, she says. The court has now ordered the TNNMC to include a separate column under the female and male category for ‘transgender women’and ‘transgender men’ in the state temporarily. Notably, state government is yet to make amendments to the existing service laws, after which a separate column for the ‘other’ gender will be a permanent feature in all application forms. The feature is expected to come into effect within the next six months after which Rakshika will be enrolled under the ‘other’ gender category. She will also be given seniority preference when the feature is introduced. By this, Rakshika is all set to become the first transgender nurse in the nation.
However, the road to justice has not been an easy one for Rakshika .” The past year has been extremely difficult. Despite having all the necessary qualifications and eligibility, I have been forced to beg. I hold government responsible for this.” The harrowing ordeal also left her contemplating suicide at many times, she reflects. “In addition to my financial woes, I was subjected to a lot of mental harassment. I just wanted to give up at a point,” she adds.
Despite the ‘positive’ ruling, she doesn’t consider this a success. She says that there are several other transgenders who continue to suffer due to government’s failure to implement the act and real success for her is when every person from her community gets justice.” It has been five years since the SC judgement and yet no state has implemented the order, to my knowledge,” she accuses. “As a community, we face discrimination in almost every walk of life. We are being pushed to fight even for basic rights,” she adds.
Rakshika also calls for horizontal reservation for the transgender community in all sectors. “Most transgenders discontinue education or do not perform well in education when compared to others because of the bullying we are subjected to. Introducing ‘horizontal reservation’ for transgender men and women will improve our chances and positively impact our community as a whole,” she asserts.
