According to one estimate, India has about two million transgender people that mostly live on the fringes of society, often in poverty, ostracised because of their gender identity.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019
Following the SC ruling, the National Commission for Other Backward Classes (NCBC) recommended that all transgender persons from forward castes be given reservation under the existing 27 per cent quota for OBC in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill . The law pushed to empower them and the court opened doors but it will take a lot more to fight well-entrenched prejudice and bias.
There are various reasons why the bill invalidates the community even though it may seem as though it protects their rights. On the surface, it attempts to provide people that identify as transgenders to be able to avail for benefits under the reservation schemes but it's the whole process of attaining the certificate that states they are transgender people that violates the basic right of self identification. The bill was passed without an open discussion with the members of the concerned community and lacked the nuances of their problems. It directly subjects them to societal stereotypes of what a trans-gender identifying person should look like, which is highly invalidating to one's gender identity and expression.
Getting a formal school education and university education remains a traumatic experience for transgenders, forcing some of them to drop out and explore options. The lack of education makes it extremely hard to get jobs to sustain the bare minimum requirements. Even for the ones that do end up getting these jobs, it's no easy life as work place harassment and discrimination runs rampant in these spaces. The gender dysphoria throughout life gets further aggravated by the discrimination in school dress codes, public washrooms, shopping for clothes, etc. The degree of discrimination continues to push them away and disenfranchises them. They move away from the mainstream, rather than integrate with it.
Exploring the depth of prejudice:-
Now, just take a while and picture this:- you care to get a job and being independent, for which you want to get a formal education, a good degree but YOU CAN'T. Not every transgender person gets the privilege of being accepted and supported by their families, with most of them disowned at an early age with no independency of their own, they are left to beg on the streets to buy themselves at least meals for the day. (But this is not it.)
Now, atop that, add the societal discrimination against these communities as they beg on the streets. There already is a lack of sympathy for the beggars, but the situation gets worse on multifold levels when it comes to transgender people begging at traffic signals.
This happens to only be a small percentage of the daily hustle that they endure. The lack of money is tormenting but it's the casual passing of slurs and mockery that make it a bigger problem of societal concern.
It's not to say that everyone with a privilege is to be blamed, but it's ones that sit in their air conditioned cars and fancy restaurants as they laugh and look down on people struggling to make a living for themselves. This transphobia is what got these people kicked out of their own homes, the fear of those parents that society will not accept their child to identify this way.
It's a vicious cycle of sorts, that is--
3 key things to take back from this:-
1) you do not live the life of these people, it's okay if you do not understand the depth and the nuance of their struggles. But, do not invalidate their lived experiences. Be open to learning and correction.
2) transgender people are not all the same- each one has a different degree of gender identity & expression. It's false to only accept them if they fit into your criteria of what a transgender person should look like.
3) your support for the community begins with acknowledging the problems that exist, where they stem from and knowing they need to be solved.
(Here are a few links if you wish to donate to NGOs supporting transgender communities in India:)
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