by Grace Banu
To the President and the Prime Minister of India,
We, the transgender people of India, the children of this ‘Independent’ land who have been disowned by our families, by the government, and have been made refugees in our own land. I am writing this with the sweat and blood of the transgender community and request you to at least euthanize us.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016 has lost the essence of the Indian Democracy and targets the transgender community with its toxic policies. We are suffering in between life and death due to your toxicity. It is far better to die rather than to wander in between life and death. So, please euthanize us.
The Indian Constitution, judicial system, and our representatives contradict each other and question the entire concept of democracy. It is far better to die than to survive in the margins of the society where you have pushed us.
So, please euthanize us.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016 which your government is eager to introduce this winter session in the Parliament has lost all the essence of social justice outlined by the Supreme Court’s landmark NALSA judgement of April 15 2014, on transgender rights and the subsequent Transgender Persons Bill 2014 introduced by DMK MP Tiruchi Siva in Rajya Sabha (Upper House). Your bill is a grave injustice to the already oppressed transgender community, and the bill further criminalises us and reinforces your oppression. And this is the bill that your government is eager to thrust upon us.
The bill which your Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry is eager to introduce says that we should not “beg, involve in sex-work for livelihood, and cannot seek protection from the transgender community.” At the same time, the bill does not provide reservation for us in education and work. If such a bill is passed, we realise that we will have no option to survive. Instead of pushing us to nothing, it is far better for us to die.
So, please euthanize us.
Instead of passing the progressive Private Member’s bill which was passed in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), you stopped it and introduced a damaging bill in the Lok Sabha (Lower House). We also placed a request before the Standing Committee which consists of 32 parliamentarians. The standing Committee also recommended to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that We must be provided reservation in education and jobs. But the ministry has rejected this recommendation and have done injustice to democracy. We pointed out this injustice and requested the government, protested in a democratic manner, but it all went in vain. Instead of living in a country that trivializes our request and protests it is far better to die.
So, please EUTHANIZE US.
Translated from Tamil by Moulee.
This post was first published here.
Views expressed are the author's own.