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Transgender cop claims colleagues harassed her. Her reality the norm for India’s queer workforce

Nazriya’s years in service are a spiral of allegations, counter-allegations. The blame game exposes the casual treatment the community gets when trying to enter the mainstream.

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Coimbatore/Chennai: Police constable R Nazriya’s life is on hold. It’s been two months since the trans-woman police constable from Special Juvenile Aide police (SJAP) Coimbatore put in her papers due to alleged harassment, but her resignation is yet to be accepted. An inquiry into the police personnel she raised a complaint against is underway, but her conduct is also under scrutiny. And until both investigations are over, and the reports submitted, all Nazariya can do is wait.

“I faced insults over my gender and caste, after complaining to the commissioner the harassment only increased with officials placing me on extra duties. The rules were different for the rest of the constables and different for me. At one point I could not tolerate the mental trauma,” says Nazriya, who finally resigned on 18 March 2023, six years after she joined the force.

Nazriya’s tumultuous years in service are a spiral of allegations, counter-allegations and a battle for survival that’s still playing out but it also underlines the systemic othering of the transgender community at India’s workplaces. The police point to her lack of discipline, cite instances where she allegedly reported to work under the influence of alcohol, or simply failed to turn up. The messy blame game exposes the casual treatment the community members get when trying to enter the mainstream. Beyond rules and legislation securing their right to enter the workplaces—from police to Bollywood—Nazriya’s tale demands a cultural shift, and the checks and balances India needs to mend the gap of exclusion.

The latest ad by Starbucks—part of the ‘It Starts With Your Name’ campaign, which featured transgender model and actor Siya—shows how divisive transgender equality can be in India. While the ad has been hailed for its inclusive message, many people are calling for a boycott of Starbucks.

It is up to employers to create awareness among staff and foster a work atmosphere of acceptance, say mental health experts, but that’s easier said than done.

It is not unusual for members of the transgender community to be harassed, says Savitha, who is part of the crisis management team at Sahodaran, an organisation working for the welfare of LGBTQAI+ community in Tamil Nadu.

25-year-old Sanjiv C, a chef from Chennai, claimed his experience changed for the worse when his boss let it slip to the rest of his colleagues that he was a transgender man.

“My coworkers started touching me inappropriately. They started singing Oororam Puliyamaram (the movie song features transgender women and has become a culturally coded way to ridicule transgender people). They stopped eating with me,” says Sanjiv. At the time of joining the restaurant in 2020, he was told that his salary would be raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 16,000 after a month. But that never happened. “They thought that as a transman, I would not get another job, and would simply adjust and work.” He quit the same year.

The rights of members of the LGBTQAI+ community are now part of mainstream conversations, but their reality is mired with prejudice and exclusion.

“There has to be a bridge to help the transgender community integrate into the system,” says Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, consultant psychiatrist and founder of the non-profit Sneha which provides free counselling. After years of being isolated or forced to defend their choices, a transition to the mainstream will not always be smooth. “They have grown up being out of the system.”


Also Read: ‘Exploited my vulnerability’ — trans dancer accuses Kalakshetra board member of abuse in complaint


Gender and caste harassment 

Then 22-year-old Nazriya was inspired by K Prithika Yashini, who became India’s first transgender cop in 2017. Yashini’s application was first rejected due to her trans identity. She was allowed to take the physical tests only after a court battle.

Nazriya was the second trans woman to join the Tamil Nadu police after Yashini. She turned to the police force for acceptance and a chance to live out her dream as a protector in khaki. Instead, she claims she was rejected by those who had taken an oath to serve and protect everyone.

After two suicide attempts, Nazriya’s dream to be accepted crashed and burned. Along with her resignation, she submitted a complaint against two inspectors and a deputy superintendent to Coimbatore Police Commissioner K Balakrishnan.

“An inquiry under a deputy commissioner has been ordered and based on the finding, actions will be initiated,” says Balakrishnan. But he has also opened an inquiry into her conduct.

She claims her days in the force were marked by gender-based inappropriate remarks, covert forms of untouchability, and even exclusion in the police station due to her caste.

“They used to go and wash the glass that I drank from,” she recalls.

The first time Nazriya attempted suicide was in 2018 on her first posting in her hometown, Ramanathapuram. She was allegedly verbally and sexually harassed during her time there.  The following year, she was transferred to Coimbatore at her request where she was first stationed with the Armed Reserve Police, and then as a constable. There were two more transfers, but her time in each post was not without friction.

“For a transgender person who has had to fight and push back all her life, to go into a system that demands absolute obedience can be difficult,” says Dr Vijayakumar, who is also a member of the World Health Organization’s International Network for Suicide Research and Prevention.

She adds that most people in the community have to fend for themselves. “They are used and abused. They lose trust, which leads to depression, anxiety and suicidal behaviour.  All this contributes to a person feeling excluded, rejected, reduced self-worth and anger against society.”


Also Read: He gave birth, she became a mom: How transgender couple broke barriers to become parents


Suicide attempt

If sub-inspector K. Prithika paved the way for Nazriya to become a cop, then former DGP SR Jangid provided the perfect playbook. The now-retired IPS officer’s takedown of the notorious Bavaria gang, which had a hand in the high-profile murder of an AIADMK MLA, inspired the Tamil film, Dheeran Adhigaram Ondru. It was released in 2017—the same year that Nazriya applied to the force.

But Nazriya’s conduct while in service has come under intense scrutiny. Her peers and senior officials said she did not have the required discipline for the job.

“Her service record from the time of her training has been taken. She has absented herself in her training and in other places wherever she was deployed on duty. Few punishment roles were also initiated,” says commissioner Balakrishnan.

The confrontation between Nazriya and the police force came to a head on 16 January when she consumed 18 sleeping pills at the police station she was attached to. From there, she went to several other stations to register a complaint against her superior. None of them would listen to her, she claims. She then went directly to the police commissioner’s office. She alleges that the inspector in her department did not give her the necessary documents for a medical fitness test after she returned from leave. The delay led to her losing several days of leave.

Officials in the commissioner’s office remember Nazriya as the woman constable who tried jumping from the terrace of the office building.

“The commissioner was not in office and hence she could not meet him. When we told her this, she tried to jump from the building,” says one police officer. But Nazriya has no recollection of the incidents described by the officials.

“I had consumed 18 sleeping pills, a suicide attempt. I feel very bad about the incident. I don’t remember what had happened that day,” she says.

Nazariya was called in for inquiry and counselled by a deputy commissioner, but according to a senior official, she went for two sessions and was asked to continue, but she didn’t go back.

Today, she finds herself having to prove that she was targeted. She keeps recordings of her interactions with fellow personnel, hoping that they will be accepted as proof of her innocence.

In one such recording, a woman she claims is a constable, can be heard saying: “I know you don’t drink, but then the Assitant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner asked me to write it. Everywhere they have asked me to sign and I have been kept as their witness.” The cop went on to explain her helplessness against orders from the higher-ups. The conversation ends with the cop urging Nazriya not to give up.

“Don’t leave your job. You do very good work and no one can say you don’t work.”

In another recording, a man, whom Nazriya claims is a police official, asks her for a “friend to be sent to him”. In response, Nazriya can be heard saying that she has only been focusing on work, studies and homelife, and does not have any “such friends” who can cater to his needs.

But these interactions don’t find mention in the complaint that she submitted to the police commissioner along with her resignation.

ThePrint reached out to two transgender officers in the Tamil Nadu police force including Prithika but neither responded to calls or messages on WhatsApp.

Letika Saran, former Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu, who served as the 36th Commissioner of Police said women police officers, by and large, are equal to men in the sense that they’re doing the same work as a man. While the former DGP insists that women are treated equally in the department she adds, “But if the woman wants to take have leave because their child has to be taken somewhere, or their father needs medical attention or something like that, then there are chances that it will be commented on when duties are assigned to the women. It should not be happening, but it does.”

Prominent members of the trans community in Tamil Nadu are not surprised by Nazriya’s experience.

“What happened to her is very telling of the attitude of the police,” says AIADMK spokesperson Apsara Reddy, who experienced this prejudice herself.  She claims she was harassed by lower-level police. “They’ve blatantly asked me ‘How much do you charge?’ or ‘Where is your house and who lives with you?’,” she says.


Also Read: ‘Advocacy best profession to raise voice,’ says Kerala’s first transgender lawyer Padma Lakshmi


Quitting not uncommon 

With only a minuscule representation in the workforce, transgender voices are often muffled. The prejudice is pervasive across sectors. Siya, the 25-year-old trans model who made waves with the Starbucks ad, shared her experience of being bullied in the boys’ school she attended in Dehradun. She attempted suicide at 15, she told The Indian Express in an interview. In Delhi, a policeman assumed she was a sex worker and harassed her.

Many like Nazriya and Sanjiv simply quit. Soon after leaving his chef’s job, Sanjeev joined a private IT firm as a processor, a role he had held before, but experienced a similar prejudice here as well. This time, he stuck around for two years. But claims he was never given an appraisal. “I used to put in more than 13 hours a day, but my salary remained low.” He finally resigned in 2023.

It’s not uncommon for members of the LGBTQAI+ community to quit, said Savitha, whose organisation Sahodaran works with transgender persons who are attempting to carve out a space for themselves in the workplace.

“Sahodaran has helped 75 members of the transgender community in Tamil Nadu get jobs in the IT sector since 2021. But 15 of them already resigned [within three months to a year] alleging some form of harassment,” she says.

Nazriya who has given her Group 1 exam for the TNPSC is waiting for the results, but she doesn’t know if she wants to take up another government job even if she makes the cut. She wants closure first.

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)

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