The Transgenders in India have been recognized in India, for
the first time in the Aadhar Card. Recently their request to be included in
Voter ID as transgenders/third gender, has been rejected by the Election
Commission in Mumbai. Please see link below.
While the debate on gender continues and really, in all
honesty, I oppose ‘labels’ purely because, it is too restrictive, I do hope for
more for the transgenders in India.
Recently, I came across a community quite close to my home. They
had just been visiting someone’s house in the locality and I was on my way out
to work, so only a few words passed between us.
“So, where do you live?” I asked one of them.
“Kalyanpuri.” She answered. I knew my house help too lived
there.
“I have a question to ask you,” I continued gingerly. “What
do you call yourself?”
“Kinnar… we call ourselves Kinnar.” She said smilingly, knowing how interested I
was in her.
“May I visit you, one day?” I asked.
“Please come!” she said and called out to her friend to give
me her visiting card. “The number beneath Sai Baba is mine. The lady on the
other side is my Guru.”
“Thank you!” I said politely, my interest shooting up in
leaps and bounds. “I will come.”
They were all so beautiful, wearing gorgeous saris and
trinkets on their neck, fingers and toes.
There really is something amazing about people you cannot
define. They become mysterious to our eyes. And this becomes the source of
desire.
Ever since, I met a few transgenders in a close encounter a
few years ago, in Bhopal, I have felt a deep seated attraction to them. Of
late, working on my third novel, I have places where I needed to research on
them, at a very close heart to heart, at home spaces and I was already
wondering how I could do that. There is so much literature on them, yet, being
with a community, spending time and sharing meals with them, makes a huge
contribution to your thoughts.
While issues of visibility plague LGBT movement in India and
Laws are still primitive and not supportive, it is hard to keep ones head above
the water and fight for recognition, income, and Legal status. They earn only by ‘blessing’ new born children
and are rarely employed with the Government.
I, of course promised to let my Kinnar friends know of every
birth in the locality and every marriage! They would calculate the rest. Not
too difficult in Delhi, where B follows M, within a year!
On the one hand, transgenders have always been vocal about
themselves but we have taken too much time to recognize their presence among
us. By giving them no legal status, we force them to marginalized quarters in
our cities and towns, where, they are shaded out from the rest of society.
Their economic status does not improve, because, our society and legal system
does not permit them the right to education nor earning a livelihood, just like
others. And in this respect, they are far more in hiding, than they would like
to be.
Indeed, to include them in our society, we need to embrace
them in our lives. We need to open up and challenge ourselves to cross over.
To know more on the Kinnar Community, click Here
EC rejects transgenders demand Here
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