Transgender wins a battle of the sexes

Armed with the freedom to choose gender, she gets a DL; passport should now be a cinch



Exactly a year ago, Supreme Court gave a landmark direction to treat transgenders as equals, created a third gender status and ruled that the community was entitled to be identified with the gender of their choice. Last Friday, when 28-year-old Suma M got her driving licence identifying her as “female” from Jayanagar RTO office without much ado, she was reassured that there was some hope for transgenders like her.
A transgender female, Suma is also one among the very few from the community to be educated and get a mainstream job. Suma’s driving licence application was rejected about five years ago as officials were clueless and confused about her gender. In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on April 15, 2014 created the third gender status for transgenders. This was in response to a social justice petition filed by National Legal Services Authority on behalf of transgenders. The SC ruled that transgenders be treated as socially and economically backward; if a person surgically changes his/her sex, then he or she is entitled to her changed sex and cannot be discriminated against. Policy-wise, in the last one year, there has not been much development in Karnataka in this regard as the government is yet to set up the SC-mandated sexual minorities welfare board, but some awareness among the bureaucracy seems to be seeping in. However, in the recent budget, an announcement was made about implementing a transgender policy in the state “to enable transgenders to lead a respectable life by taking up income-generating activities. Under this policy, 1,000 beneficiaries will be provided an incentive of Rs 20,000 each.” Suma is a BBM graduate with distinction from United Mission Degree College and as she is also doing some computer courses, she was hired by a tech and tourism company as a programme associate. Born as a male with feminine features, Suma went in for a sex reassignment surgery when she was 21 and now identifies herself as a woman. “In 2010, I applied for a DL but did not get it. I had applied under woman gender, but in all my documents, my gender is male. So officials rejected the application. With the Supreme Court order, there seems to be some positive vibes,” Suma says. Now that she has her DL, she has applied for passport.