Northeast activists claim they were not consulted by experts before drafting Transgender Bill 2016, due to be tabled in winter session of Parliament.
New Delhi: Unable to make themselves heard at the national level, the transgender community in the Northeast is pushing for state-level mechanisms to protect their rights even as the Centre is set to introduce the controversial Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, in Parliament in the ongoing winter session.
The bill has been opposed by activists for what they say is undermining experts’ suggestions to decriminalise the trans community under IPC Section 377; its narrow definition of a transgender person; and for subjecting self-identification to the scrutiny of a district screening committee, among others.
The bill, in its current form, contradicts the 2013 Supreme Court order that officially recognised the third gender, they say.Transgender activists from the Northeast claimed that they were not consulted by a Parliamentary Standing Committee which had invited suggestion from all states barring those from the Northeast, before presenting its report to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
“The PSC invited transgender activists from every state except the Northeast,” transgender activist Swati Bidhan Baruah told ThePrint.
In March this year, Baruah had filed a PIL in the Gauhati High Court, seeking the state government be told to follow the directives of the NALSA judgment, which offers a comprehensive understanding of transgender persons wanting to identify themselves as outside the male-female binary.
“So when the chief justice asked us the requirement for a committee to be formed in Assam, we said that the voices in Assam and the rest of the Northeast were never represented in the expert committee report,” Baruah added.
The outcome is that local mechanisms are being explored to protect the rights of trans people.
In Assam, the state government has recently formed a committee to study the problems faced by transgender persons, following an order by the Gauhati High Court.
In Manipur, the state government has constituted a Transgender Welfare Board which works for empowerment of the trans community.
According to the activists from the region, while the Centre’s bill prohibits discrimination against a transgender person, it fails to clarify as to what this discrimination must comprise and offer any redressal mechanism.
Greater acceptability
The transgender community in the Northeast is slowly coming out of the closet because of greater acceptability.
“Earlier, we couldn’t roam around, access public spaces or go to government offices. But now, 50 per cent of the Naga society has accepted us,” Lima Jamir, the first transgender person to come out openly in Nagaland, told ThePrint.
In Manipur, the state legal services authority offers free counselling to transgender persons. Recognising their rights, Manipur also installed separate toilets for transgender persons in the 2017 Sangai Festival, a major platform to showcase the rich tradition and culture of the state.
In Nagaland, the conditions improved after 2015, when the government acknowledged the existence of transgender persons in Naga society, said Lima.
“Now, we get ration and are treated in a better way in government offices. I even got my gender changed to ‘transgender’ in my birth certificate,” said the 31-year-old, who works with Guardian Angel, an LGBTQI rights NGO in Dimapur.
She is hopeful that by next year, the government would set up a welfare board similar to Manipur.
Lack of data a major hurdle
The absence of state-wide data on the transgender population has proved to be a major hurdle in formulating a policy. The All Assam Transgender Association has 20,000 members, said Baruah.
“There are many transgender persons who are still not coming out because of social humiliation or violation they may face. The government should do a proper survey,” she added.
The 2011 Census found a population of 11,374 transgender persons in Assam, the highest among all NE states.
Barring Kerala, no other states in India have formulated a policy for the transgender population.
Santa Khurai, founder of the Imphal-based All Manipur Nupi Manbi Association (AMaNA), however, feels the PSC should not be blamed for excluding the Northeast. “It is difficult to bring in representation from the Northeast because there aren’t too many queer activists for various reasons,” she said.