Bridging a queer divide

 

 

After seeing Selvi's skills at fitness training, the president of the Madras Cricket Club was impressed. He asked her to join his club as a sports and fitness trainer. Now Selvi is brimming with confidence, thanks to her new job.

What’s new, you may ask.

Selvi belongs to a community traditionally much beleaguered, exploited and socially ostracised – the transgenders. Selvi’s case – that of a confident and empowered individual – may sound like an aberration, but is in fact a sign of the changing times and notions, at least in Tamil Nadu.

Increasing number of transgenders in the state are well on their way up the social ladder, with much public support of course. There are now quite a few notable Bharatanatyam dancers and even a television anchor amongst them. Besides, a majority of transgenders have come together in the form of various organisations to demand their much-deprived rights of the government. After a decade of tireless work and campaign, they have the attention of the Tamil Nadu government and have been successful in getting real and official help with the issue of Voter Identity cards and ration cards. There is also a separate Welfare board for transgenders with 460 members in Chennai district already registered. It is not the government alone that has warmed up to the cause of the transgenders. A few private organisations too have chipped in with plans to rehabilitate them.

Transgenders – loosely defined as women trapped in men’s bodies – have more often than not been the subject of scandalous and derogatory epithets in the family and society. Most of them would either be thrown out of the houses or run away to places like Mumbai or Pune to find a safe haven amidst fellow transgenders. They often undergo the most painful and unsafe sex change operations to fulfill their internal dilemma physically. Some even resort to hormone injections. In a majority of cases, the third gender ends up in beggary and prostitution. With the ever looming threat of HIV, they are an acutely gullible lot.

Reshma Sharma, lawyer and karate guru, recently conducted a six-day camp for transgenders in her karate school Doja Chakra with an aim to empower them in matters of self-defence and mental health. “I wished to gather around one hundred transgenders and teach them the basics in self-defence. In the beginning, it was very hard to make them come around to the idea of such training. Then I personally met many members and convinced them. After three months of work, seventy five persons came including some MSM workers too. It was a fulfilling exercise,” Reshma claimed. Reshma has been awarded the state government’s Kalpana Chawla Award for Bravery. Along the way she did have to face many a hurdle, including difficulties in arranging a venue for the program owing to the skepticism of the authorities. In the end, however, her efforts paid off when 40 vacancies soliciting transgenders as security guards in various institutions in Chennai came by. “These people are very loyal and are blessed with good physical strength. They are perfect candidates to be security guards. These jobs could be a way of rehabilitating them as most of them are unskilled for want of education.” AR Shamsudeen, another Chennai-based lawyer, is one of those willing to recruit transgenders as security guards at his property in East Coast Road, Chennai. Speaking to TSI he said, “They are neglected by the public and society, which is rather unfair to any human being. If we give them an opportunity, they will be loyal too. They usually behave better with women and children.” Historically too, transgenders are known to have been efficient attendants and guards in the palaces of kings and queens. It wouldn’t thus be too far-fetched to imagine transgenders as security guards in these modern times.

Sangamitra Amudha, founder trustee of Sanmarga Foundation, counseled transgenders on mental health issues, and imparted meditation lessons at Doja Chakra. “I went to the training programme for six days, but this is not enough. At least once a week we must talk to them. They have a male body and a ‘female’ heart – one looking to be identified as a female. A normal life is hard to come by in the wake of such an identity crisis. Their families have dumped them; the society mocks them… they find consolation only amidst their own community members. I found their mental health to be in deplorable states. If you hear their stories, you will definitely weep,” she lamented.

Reshma had also found it difficult to fill the 40 vacancies for transgender security guards. “I have received only around ten applications from them. One must understand that they have hitherto only been engaged and exploited in sex-related jobs. I hope things change fast and many more become ready to take up decent jobs which will finally abolish the social stigma around them,” she said.

Selvi herself concedes that many in her community would take a while before switching over to something so radically different as sentry duties, what with no decent place to live and debts and other issues. She hopes though, “With the society increasingly becoming aware that transgenders are also human beings and respecting them, transgenders too will come forward.”

With an active supporter in Member of Parliament Kanimozhi, daughter of Chief Minister Karunanidhi, the government’s approach towards the transgenders in Tamil Nadu has undergone a sea change, as also the society, now slightly more empathetic, if not appreciative. Still a long way to go though..