Focus

{"id":6562,"__component":"library.focus","Focus":"<h3>In this bulletin, PARI Library spotlights the voices and data around the queer community who live away from big metros and cities, and face social exclusion in their personal and professional lives</h3><p></p><hr/><p></p><p class=\"MsoNormal\">Confinement, forced marriage, sexual and physical violence and\n‘corrective’ therapies are the kind of threats and experiences members of the\nLGBTQIA+ community often face, as this 2019 report, <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/living-with-dignity-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-based-human-rights-violations/\">Living with Dignity</a>, published by the\nInternational Commission of Jurists, says.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\">Take the case of <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/love-and-a-place-of-ones-own-in-a-metropolis/\">Vidhhi and Aarush </a>(names changed) who had\nto leave their respective homes in Thane and Palghar districts in Maharashtra,\nto live together in Mumbai. Vidhhi and Aarush (who identifies as a trans man)\nmoved into a rented room in the city. “The landlord is not aware of our relationship.\nWe must hide it. We don’t want to vacate the room,” Aarush says.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\">LGBTQIA+ persons are often denied housing, forcefully evicted, and\nharassed by family, landlords, neighbours and the police. Many face\nhomelessness, says the <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/living-with-dignity-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-based-human-rights-violations/\">Living with Dignity </a>report.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\">Stigma and harassment force many transgender people, especially in rural\nIndia, to leave home and find a safer space. A <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/transgender-inclusivity-a-reality-check/\">study </a>of\ntransgender persons in West Bengal released by the National Human Rights\nCommission in 2021 found that “the family pressurises them to mask their gender\nexpression.” And nearly half of the people left their households because of the\ndiscriminatory behaviour of their family, friends and society.</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">“Just because we are transgender, does it mean we don’t have <i>izzat </i>[honour]?”\nasks Sheetal, a trans woman, speaking from years of bitter experience – in\nschool, at work, on the streets, almost everywhere. “Why does everyone treat us\nwith contempt?” she asks in this story titled, ‘ <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/people-stare-at-us-as-if-we-are-evil-spirits/\">People stare at us as if we are evil spirits </a>’.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><embed alt=\"Image 1\" embedtype=\"image\" format=\"halfwidth\" id=\"24789\"/><br/></p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/people-stare-at-us-as-if-we-are-evil-spirits/\">Kolhapur </a>, Sakina (her assumed name as a\nwoman) tried to tell her family about her desire to be a woman. But they\ninsisted that she (who they saw as male) marry a girl. “At home I have to live\nas a father, as a husband. I cannot fulfil my wish to live as a woman. I live a\ndual life – as a woman in my mind and as a man in the world.”</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Prejudicial attitudes towards people belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community\nprevail in many parts of our country. The transgender community, for instance,\nis deprived of many of the rights available to cisgender people in the spheres\nof education, employment, healthcare, voting, family and marriage, shows\nthis <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/study-on-human-rights-of-transgender-as-a-third-gender/\">study </a>on the human rights of transgender\nas third gender.</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In Himachal Pradesh’s Dharmshala town, the first <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/in-dharmshala-marching-with-pride/\">Pride march </a>held in April 2023 was met\nwith suspicion by some locals like Navneet Kothiwala. “I don’t think this is\nright, they [queer people] shouldn’t fight for this because what they are\nasking for is not natural – how will they have children?”</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Transgender persons are regularly subjected to discrimination and\nisolation, and denied access to accommodation as well as jobs. “We do not like\nto beg, but people don’t give us work,” says <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/people-stare-at-us-as-if-we-are-evil-spirits/\">Radhika Gosavi </a>who realised that she was\na transgender around the age of 13. “Shopkeepers often tell us to get lost. We\nbear everything so we can earn enough to eat,” she adds.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\">Social rejection and denial of\nrightful job opportunities is a real problem for transgender people. A <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/study-on-human-rights-of-transgender-as-a-third-gender/\">Study on Human Rights of Transgender as a Third\nGender </a>(conducted\nin Uttar Pradesh and Delhi) showed that 99 per cent of the respondents reported\nencountering more than one instance of ‘social rejection’ and around 96 per\ncent had been denied ‘employment opportunities’.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><embed alt=\"Image 2\" embedtype=\"image\" format=\"halfwidth\" id=\"24788\"/><br/></p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">“If we have to go anywhere, the rickshaw driver will often not take us\nand people treat us like untouchables in trains and buses. No one will stand or\nsit next to us but they will stare at us as if we are some evil spirits,” says\ntransgender person, Radhika.</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">LGBTQIA+ persons face <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/living-with-dignity-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-based-human-rights-violations/\">discrimination </a>while accessing public\nspaces – including shopping malls and restaurants. They are denied entry,\nrefused to provide services, subjected to invasive surveillance and\ndiscriminatory pricing. Completing education becomes an added challenge. K.\nSwesthika and I. Shalin, <i>kummi </i>(traditional song)\ndancer-performers from Madurai, had to discontinue their studies for BA and\nClass 11 respectively due to the harassment they faced for being trans women.\nRead: <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/trans-artists-in-madurai-bullied-isolated-broke/\">Trans artists in Madurai: bullied, isolated, broke</a></p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">This <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/transgender-survey-kerala-2014-15/\">survey, </a>published in 2015 (a year after\nthe Supreme Court passed a judgement recognising transgender as a third gender)\nshows that 58 per cent of members from the transgender community in Kerala\ndropped out of schools before completing Class 10. The reasons for discontinuing\neducation include severe harassment at school, lack of reservation and\nunsupportive home environment.</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">*****</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">“‘In the women’s team, there is a man playing’ – these were the sorts of\nheadlines,” remembers <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/i-never-got-the-chance-to-play-for-india-again/\">Boni Paul</a>, who identifies as a man and\nis an intersex person. He is a former footballer who was selected for the\nnational team to play in the 1998 Asian Games but was subsequently removed,\nowing to his gender identity.</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Intersex\npeople are born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and\nchromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female\nbodies, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner\nfor <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/corona-chronicles-intersex-persons-covid-19-lockdown-stories/\">Human Rights</a>.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><embed alt=\"Image 3\" embedtype=\"image\" format=\"halfwidth\" id=\"24787\"/><br/></p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">“I had a uterus, one ovary and there was a penis inside. I had both\n‘sides’ [reproductive parts],” says Boni. “My type of body exists not just in\nIndia but across the world. Athletes, tennis players, footballers, there are\nmany players like me.”</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Boni says that he would not leave his house because of fear of society.\nMembers of the LGBTQIA+ community often face threats to their personal safety\nand abuses that amount to torture or degrading treatment as per international\nlaw, notes this <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/living-with-dignity-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-based-human-rights-violations/\">report </a>. In fact, in India, physical\nassault made up 40 per cent of the total cases of <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/2019-human-rights-violations-report/\">human rights violations </a>recorded in 2018,\nfollowed by rape and sexual harassment (17 per cent).</p>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">This <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/lost-identity-transgender-persons-inside-indian-prisons/\">report </a>shows that except for Karnataka,\nno state government in the country has undertaken awareness campaigns\naddressing legal recognition of third gender as an identity since 2014. The\nfindings in the report also highlight harassment faced by the transgender community\nfrom police officials.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\">During the first covid-19\nlockdown in India, notes <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/corona-chronicles-intersex-persons-covid-19-lockdown-stories/\">Corona Chronicles</a>, several persons with differences in sex\ndevelopment failed to access the required healthcare support due to “minimal\nknowledge about their specific problems and needs.” Many such reports in PARI\nLibrary&#39;s Health of Sexual and Gender Minorities <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/rooms/health/health-sexual-and-gender-minorities/\">section </a>are critical to illustrate and understand the state\nof LGBTQIA+ health in India.</p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><embed alt=\"Image 4\" embedtype=\"image\" format=\"halfwidth\" id=\"24786\"/><br/></p>\n\n<p>While the covid-19 pandemic\nhas devastated many folk artists across Tamil Nadu, trans women performers were\namong the worst hit – with barely any work or income, and no access to aid or\nstate benefits. Sixty-year old <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/in-madurai-the-trauma-of-trans-folk-artists/\">Tharma Amma</a>, a trans woman folk artist\nfrom Madurai city says, “We do not have a fixed salary. And with this corona\n[pandemic] we lost even our few chances to earn a living.”</p>\n\n<p>She would earn a total of between Rs. 8,000 and Rs. 10,000 a\nmonth for the first half of the year. For the next half, Tharma Amma managed to\nmake up to Rs. 3,000 a month. The pandemic-lockdowns changed all that. “While\nmale and female folk artists easily apply for pension, it is very difficult for\ntrans persons. My applications have been turned down many times,” she says.</p>\n\n<p>Change is coming, at least on paper. In 2019, the Transgender\nPersons (Protection of Rights) <a href=\"https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/the-transgender-persons-protection-of-rights-act-2019/\">Act </a>was passed in the Parliament, applying\nto the whole of India. The Act says that no person or establishment shall\ndiscriminate against a transgender person in relation to education; healthcare\nservices; employment or occupation; the right to movement; purchasing or\nrenting any property; standing for or holding public office; or accessing any\ngoods, accommodation, service, facility, benefit, privilege or opportunity\navailable to the general public.</p>\n\n<p>The Constitution prohibits discrimination of any kind on the\ngrounds of sexual identity. It also says that states can introduce special\nprovisions for women and children to ensure that they are not discriminated\nagainst or denied their rights. However, it does not specify that such\nprovisions can be introduced for queer persons.</p><hr/>\n\n<p><i>Cover design: Swadesha Sharma and Siddhita Sonavane</i></p>"}

Highlights