:: Antara Dev Sen

Gender bender

Antara Dev Sen

Sept.03 : As you read this, the Union Cabinet will be deliberating on the Delhi high court judgment on gay rights. It is believed that the law ministry and home ministry have decided not to oppose the judgment in the Supreme Court, and have prepared a note requesting the Cabinet’s approval. If the Cabinet assents, it would be another significant step towards making us a more civilised and just society.

In July, following an appeal to stay the high court’s historic verdict decriminalising homosexuality, the Supreme Court had asked the government to take a stand. The Delhi high court verdict was delivered following a spirited but schizophrenic battle by our sarkar, where the law and home ministries fought against amending Section 377, while the health ministry joined forces with NGOs fighting for the amendment. After the high court verdict, law minister M. Veerappa Moily, home minister P. Chidambaram and health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad got together to sort out differences and the Cabinet note reflects their present views.

So far, so good. Hopefully, the government will go along with the spirit of change and not embarrass us like last time. Meanwhile, much has been written about Section 377 and the need to amend it — including in this column — so I won’t go into all that. I would, however, like to point out that amending this law would not just decriminalise homosexuality, it would also stop the violation of human rights of one of the most vulnerable, most shamefully discriminated against community of Indians — the third sex or the hijras.

All our harping on gender equality has skirted the issue of the third sex, the sexual minority with the rawest deal. With very few legal rights, no privileges as a minority and very little financial backing, this community has admirably made a place for itself in the system that shuns it. To avoid social stigma, gays can hide their sexual preference, but the intersexed or transgendered usually cannot and are permanently stigmatised. Cornered, they have turned aggressive in fighting for their rights, and amending Section 377 is one of their old demands. Because this law criminalises hijras as well, and makes them particularly vulnerable to police abuse.

Because of social ostracism, hijras generally have very little education and very few job options. Apparently, the only government job they can get is as loan recovery agents, acting as official hooligans. In effect, instead of offering equal opportunity and combating social bias, the government is actually reinstating our prejudices and perpetuating society’s fear and loathing of hijras. It is not quite clear why the third sex cannot get other jobs, like other citizens. What is clear, however, is that lack of opportunities has forced a majority of hijras (which includes the intersexed, transgendered as well as uncastrated, cross-dressing males) into prostitution, that haven for the uneducated, unskilled jobless who must earn their bread.

This makes them particularly vulnerable to both police extortion and abuse, as well as to disease. Among the MSM (men who have sex with men) community, hijras are the most infected with HIV/AIDS. But marginalised by society and criminalised by Section 377, they can neither protect themselves nor get treatment like other citizens. We have about 30 million of the third sex. It is estimated that unless treated urgently, a quarter of them will die of HIV/AIDS. Even the naturally intersexed (let alone the transgendered, the castrated, transsexuals or transvestites) are a huge population in India. One out of every 2,000 children is of the third sex.

The government’s attempt to give hijras citizen’s rights was evident in 2005, in the creation of the third gender category in forms like the passport form, with three gender options: Male, Female and Eunuch (ie "M", "F" or "E"). But we need more to change social attitudes. Sadly, our media, usually keen to sensationalise, ignoring sensitivities, has not helped.

Remember how in 2007, remarkable athlete Santhi Sounderajan attempted suicide and the media went glint-eyed? It dwelt shamelessly on her intersex identity and speculated that the humiliation must have led to her suicide attempt. Headlined customarily as "tainted athlete" or "sex-test failed athlete" Santhi’s identity of excellence as a sportsperson was wiped out by her identity as a curiosity of unspecified gender.

In 2006, when Santhi’s failed sex test robbed her of her silver medal at the Asian Games, our media had shown no sensitivity, labelling her "abnormal", detailing her physical inadequacies, robbing her of self-respect and dignity. Generally, the media didn’t reach beyond the curiosity factor to look at the rights or problems of the third sex. The closest they came to sympathy was reporting her coach’s curious explanation that because Santhi’s family was so desperately poor, she had not had a proper meal till 2004, which may have caused a sexual imbalance.

Both times, our media harped on sexual features and lost a fantastic opportunity to empower the third sex, by focusing on Santhi’s extraordinary athletic achievements and underlining how our citizens, whatever their gender, can make India proud. And now that Santhi is back in sports as a sought-after coach, with her own training academy in Tamil Nadu and hordes of students, the media has lost all interest in her.

Similarly, the media has focused squarely on the privileged, articulate gay community (which is excellent, since even that is a step forward for our homophobic society) in the debate over Section 377, and all but ignored the third sex. We need to make the third sex visible before we can talk of true gender equality.

Curiously, exactly as the government ponders over Section 377 — the law against bestiality and other unnatural sexual offences — we see today the curious case of a man in Mumbai charged with raping a dog. This is a pathbreaking case of prosecuting bestiality under Section 377 — which will continue to be outlawed even after the amendment. The dog is being tested for semen samples, injury marks in her private parts and other medical evidence so that "she can be given justice". Granted, rape of anybody — human or animal — is a crime and needs to be punished. But given our callousness and brutality towards animals (remember the horrible ways state governments kill dogs?) there must be ways of prosecuting without putting the poor animal through further torture. Especially since the cops may now use charges of bestiality as their personal revenue source.

There is much more to Section 377 than meets the eye.

Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at: sen@littlemag.com