Humiliated and harassed by peers and teachers, Seethal Smintoj had dropped out of school in class IX. At home and in the village bazaar, the taunts had hurt her deeply: ‘Walk like a boy, idiot; behave like a boy, stupid.’ “I didn’t know that I really behaved like a girl. But every time I heard the rebuke, I felt insulted, humiliated, angry, sad, insecure and lonely,” recalls Smintoj, now 33. Born into a Christian family in a village in Kerala’s Thrissur district, Smintoj remembers having a male name and donning male clothes, but preferring to be around other girls.
After fleeing home, “It was in Bangalore that I realised I was a transgender,” says Smintoj. The Garden City has for decades been the first refuge of young transgenders fleeing hostility in Kerala. The awareness of sexual identity led to a name change to the female Seethal years later. (The surname came from a life partner much later.)
For a living, Smintoj had resorted to the limited options available to transgenders in India — begging, street dancing and sex work — before becoming a volunteer at the Bengaluru-based NGO Sangama, which works for the welfare of sexual minorities. Returning to Kerala several years on, Smintoj found the social landscape had not changed much for transgenders.
“For a transgender, Kerala is the worst State to be in. In this patriarchal society, there are only men and women; transgenders don’t exist at all,” says Faisal, 28, who had to flee school and home in the face of harassment and humiliation in his coastal village near Chavakkad in Thrissur district. “The humiliation begins at home — parents disown you, siblings are ashamed of you and you are indirectly asked to leave home for good.” He too found refuge in Bengaluru before returning to Kerala as a transgender activist.
Today, he and Smintoj, pioneers of the Queer Pride parade in Kerala, are suddenly hopeful of a change in social attitude and a tolerable existence for the transgender community. In a first for the country, the Kerala government recently announced a policy which accepts transgenders as equals to men and women and promises positive steps to correct the social disability of the community.
Open to change
In tune with the Supreme Court’s historical verdict on transgenders on April 15, 2014, the ‘State Policy for Transgenders in Kerala 2015’ reads: “This policy emphasises the rights of TGs to self-identify as man, woman or TGs...” Hailing the initiative, Faisal asserts, “It’s my right to decide what my gender is”.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time in the world that a government has come out with an official transgender policy,” says Anil Chilla, a former vice-president of Sangama and the secretary of the Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO Chilla. He was involved in the survey of transgenders commissioned by the Kerala Social Welfare Department, as well as in drafting the policy based on the survey.
More than 4,000 transgenders were surveyed, bringing to light the harsh realities of their everyday existence — harassment, violence from police and others, rape, extreme discrimination, unemployment and a high suicide rate. All the transgenders surveyed had endured at least one experience of being denied a job because of their gender identity; 89 per cent had been mistreated at their workplace; 51 per cent had concealed their gender identity from their families; and 58 per cent were school dropouts. Anil Chilla pointed out that two-thirds of the transgenders surveyed had been forced to marry women and one-fourth among them had children too. But as women trapped in men’s bodies, they were suffocating in their marital life.
With its policy, Kerala aims to secure for transgenders ‘the right to live with dignity and enjoy a life free from all forms of violence; the right to freedom of expression in all matters that affect them; and equal rights to access development opportunities, resources and benefits.’
It plans to do this by ensuring ‘all government departments and public authorities extend a non-discriminatory treatment to TGs’ and ‘provide barrier-free access to education, public transport, health, social security and other services.’ Transgenders will be included in all application forms for services, employment and government benefits as third gender (Male, Female or Transgender — M/F/T).
The policy proposes to set up a TG Justice Board and Justice Committee in the districts to ensure transgenders rights are implemented and address issues of discrimination, harassment and violence. The Social Welfare Department will, in partnership with NGOs, set up a round-the-clock helpline for transgenders. The government will create a special fund for free Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) for those seeking it. The policy also proposes a number of health and education benefits.
Officials said the government was also considering setting aside a sub-quota of two percentage within the current quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs so that transgenders from these reserved communities would be entitled to special quotas in education and employment.
Sarat Cheloor, a sexual-minority rights activist welcomes the policy but cautions that ‘the proof of pudding is in eating’. “It is a very progressive and positive initiative by the Kerala Government. But it should be translated into action.” Since any implementation requires coordinated efforts from a host of government departments — police, social welfare, health, education, law, local self-government and so on — the community is cautiously optimistic for now. Cheloor also wishes that the policy had included a sensitisation programme to change social attitudes to transgenders. Smintoj, on the other hand, prefers to look on the brighter side, and says that having such a State policy in itself is a great leap forward for the transgender community in Kerala: “At least the next generation of TGs will be able to live with dignity.”