They still lead marginalized lives

KOCHI: In November 2015, Kerala became the first state in the country to announce a policy for transgender people. But that has not made the life of this marginalized community any better.
Many people belonging to the transgender community in the state are finding it difficult to find a livelihood and accept sex work to raise fund to undergo sex reassignment surgery (SRS) to align their biological sex with their gender identity.This is in blatant violation of the 2014 Supreme Court order which had directed the state to provide free medical facilities for gender transition surgery, including both pre and post operation services and counselling in public hospitals. TOI had on Saturday exposed the plight of many transgender people in Kochi who were forced to sell their bodies so that they could garner funds to undergo gender transition surgery.
State minister for health and social justice K K Shylaja told TOI that the state government would take the steps to implement the Supreme Court judgment on transgender people in letter and spirit. "Transgender people should be given all the legal protection they are entitled to. Efforts will be taken to rehabilitate them at the earliest," she said.
Incidentally, Kerala governor P Sathasivam had announced in his opening address to the newly constituted assembly on June 24 that a welfare programme would be implemented for transgender people. Even the LDF manifesto had promised to implement a transgender policy, which would provide a special status for transgender people in the field of health, education and employment. "Had there been a facility by the government, I would never have taken up sex work," said Thripthy, who underwent the surgery in a Bengaluru hospital three years ago. There are over 25,000 transgender people in the state, of which majority hail from poor and lower middle-class families.
The state policy for transgender people in Kerala states that 54% of the transgender have a monthly income of less than Rs 5,000 and only 11.6% have regular jobs.Around 91% have not changed their physical appearance.
THE SC JUDGEMENT
In September 2012 the National Legal Services Authority (NLAS) filed a petition in the SC seeking several directives, including: Granting of equal rights and protection to transgender people; inclusion of a third category in recording one's sexgender in identity documents like the election card, passport, driving license and ration card; and for admission in educational institutions, hospitals, amongst others. The NLSA had filed an intervention, on behalf of Laxmi Narayan Tripathy, a hijra/transgender activist, seeking recognition of self-identified gender of persons, either as male/female/third gender, based on their choice.
The judgment recognized the right of a person to identify in the gender that they relate to, irrespective of medical surgical intervention. The Court also protected one's gender expression by invoking the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1) (a) and held that “no restriction can be placed on one's personal appearance or choice of dressing, subject to the restrictions contained in Article 19(2) of the Constitution“.
The judgment also secured the right to equality and equal protection for transgender persons under Articles 14, 15 and 16 by prohibiting the discrimination on the ground of gender identity.
The court also issued a series of directives to the central and the state governments, which included granting of legal recognition to persons' self-identified gender, as male female/third gender; treating transgender persons as socially and educationally backward classes.