India’s top court has recognised transgender people as a third gender and is urging the nation’s government to take action to safeguard their rights. “Recognition of one’s gender identity lies at the heart of the fundamental right to dignity,” the Supreme Court’s ruling states. “Gender . . . constitutes the core of one’s sense of being as well as an integral part of a person’s identity. Legal recognition of gender identity is, therefore, part of right to dignity and freedom guaranteed under our Constitution.” The ruling calls for “hijras, eunuchs, apart from binary gender, [to] be treated as ‘third gender’ for the purpose of safeguarding their rights.” It also upholds transgender people’s right to “decide their self-identified gender” and directs government to legally recognise their gender identity, such as male, female or a third gender. The judges also instructed government to implement policies that would lead to trangender people’s socioeconomic well-being, including access to school and job placements, and to address issues of social stigma, fear, shame, gender dysphoria and other challenges. In their ruling, the judges noted the greater acceptance and prominence transgender people, or hijras, used to enjoy in Indian culture, a status that was eroded with the passage of the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act during British colonial rule that deemed the entire community “criminal.” While the law was repealed at the end of the 1940s, the community continues to be marginalised and abused. The court’s ruling follows its December decision to recriminalize gay sex, when it set aside a 2009 Delhi high-court decision that struck down Section 377. It said only lawmakers, and not the courts, can change the colonial-era law.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 16th April 2014 - 9:17am