Transgenders ecstatic after RS vote, hope Section 377 will go too

The transgender community in Tamil Nadu hopes the bill, once it becomes law, will give them a dignified status and make more private sector jobs available to them, reports R Ramasubramanian in Chennai.

The 30,000-odd transgender population of Tamil Nadu is elated after the passage of a private member's bill in the Rajya Sabha that ensures equal rights with dignity for transgenders in the country. 

A year ago the Supreme Court created the ‘third gender status’ for transgenders and told the Centre to treat them on par with OBCs. Another important milestone was the Rajya Sabha passing a private member’s bill after 45 years. The Centre will now present the bill in the Lok Sabha and make it a law after sending it for the President’s consent.  

At some stage during the proceedings a visibly embarrassed treasury benches tried to plead, cajole and compel Tiruchi Siva of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam -- the mover of the private bill -- to withdraw it.  But a strong-willed and stubborn Siva refused to budge. The Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley agreed to pass the bill, and the House passed it unanimously.

Tamil Nadu is the only state in India that has actively taken up the issues of transgenders. In 2008, for the first time in India, a separate welfare board for transgenders was established. The then DMK government of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi took special care of the welfare of transgenders.

Apart from government initiatives, the social atmosphere, too, is encouraging for the transgender community. There is a transgender news reader in Coimbatore, a television anchor, a writer and human rights activists who are classic examples of how transgenders are enjoying good opportunities in several walks of life in Tamil Nadu. 

“Once this bill is passed in the Lok Sabha and becomes a law, it will pave way for a dignified status for us. I hope it will find an echo in the private sector too where more jobs will be made available to us. This law will encourage people like me to take up roles in creative fields,” says Chennai-based transgender Rose Venkatesan, a one-time television anchor and an upcoming film director.

“This law assures a legal sanctity for our very existence on earth,” adds Rose.

Kalki Subramaniam, a transgender writer and human rights activist based in Auroville in Puducherry shares a similar sentiment. “This law will help us a lot. For a problem to be solved, legal structures are needed. It may take some years but it will enhance the well-being of transgenders to a great extent,” says Subramaniam.

But they also hope that once the bill becomes a law it will also pave way for the repeal of Section 377 of the Criminal Procedure Code. 

While the Supreme Court says that transgenders should be treated as the third gender and has directed the government to take steps in this regard, it upholds the legal sanctity of Section 377 which punishes acts of, what it calls as unnatural sex. Any sexual activity other than between a man and a woman is considered an offence. As per Section 377 any sexual activity that cannot produce a baby is unnatural and punishable. With this a transgender having consensual sex with a male is a punishable offence.

“On one hand the Supreme Court wants us to live a dignified life but on the other hand by upholding the legal sanctity of Section 377 it is denying us the right to choose our sexual orientation and consensual sexual partnerships. We hope that Section 377 will be abolished one day,” says transgender A Revathy, a writer and social activist based in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu.   

The passage of DMK MP Tiruchi Siva’s private member’s bill has all the potential to open other curious issues in the near future.