An Attempt to Critique “Normalcy”

In 2017-18, Vikalp initiated and led a workshop aimed at sensitizing persons from the trans community in Dahod about the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) Judgement. Trans people from this area, as well as from Madhya Pradesh, attended this workshop.

The NALSA judgement given by the Supreme Court of India in 2014 was a landmark decision in the timeline of the struggle for rights of trans people in India. The court recognized trans people legally for the first time under this judgement, and undertook a long and significant discussion on the discrimination and violation of human rights that trans people faced in their daily lives. One of the most important provisions of this judgment was the need to recognize self-identification of one’s gender. It held that medical and/or surgical interventions could not be held as criteria of identification of gender. Another important provision was the call for reservation for trans persons in institutions of workplace as well as education, as the Court recognized the social, educational, and economic backwardness that trans persons were subject to.

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Recurring Bills and Acts that have transpired since have been widely criticized by community members, who have continually stressed on the need to go back to the NALSA judgment and incorporate its provisions in legal Acts. Till date, we have community members who have sought to undergo the procedure to transition, and they have been not only refused certificates by doctors given absence of surgery or medical intervention, but have also had to face harassment and ignorance by these professionals. Access to information and resources, too, continues to remain scant, especially for already marginalized persons.

Such workshops, then, seek to enable a dissemination of this information to persons who will be able to use the knowledge as a tool to access their rights and benefits. Before the workshop, none of the participants were aware of the NALSA judgment and the provisions it entailed. We were able to bring the information to them and ensure awareness of the judgment which was in their favour. Post the event, we were also able to hold conversation with one participant who identified themselves as kinnar and wanted to undergo transition. They resided in a village and earned their daily wage through begging. Back home, they were not accepted within their family and the larger community. Prior to the session, they were unaware that they could go through the process legally and with dignity. After learning the guidelines of NALSA, we were able to arrange their visit to Ahmedabad, where they acquired a certificate affirming their gender.

Protests and dissent against the most recent Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and the subsequent Rules notified for the same are ongoing. The emphasis continues to be on an explicit recognition of the NALSA guidelines which affirm self-identity and call for structural measures on part of the state to pay reparations to trans persons.

References:
National Legal Services Authority Versus Union of India and others (April 15, 2014).