Misgendering, Sexual Violence, Harassment: What It Is To Be A Transgender Person in an Indian Prison
- 3 years ago
Violence, misgendering, medical negligence and routine denial of legal aid — are what mark the experience of transgender inmates in prisons across India.
In her reports for The Wire, Sukanya Shantha tracks how vulnerable one such group — the transgender community — is in India’s prisons.
Sukanya finds that many trans-women were forced into male prisons where they faced physical and sexual violence. In the testimonies recorded, trans prisoners said that their complaints are routinely overlooked by prison authorities. So also are their medical needs.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, passed in 2019, creates trouble for transgender prisoners. It mandates legal gender recognition and requires an individual to apply for a “transgender certificate”.
In this backdrop, Sukanya notes, a transgender person who enters prison without this certificate is at the mercy of prison authorities and doctors to “recognise” and “certify” them on the basis of their genitals’
What makes any redressal of these issues difficult is the lack of data on transgender prisoners. Prison statistics published by the NCRB are inadequate — they only record data along a narrow male-female binary. Transgender people are not counted separately.
The Wire explains what the major findings of Sukanya Shantha’s report are
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In her reports for The Wire, Sukanya Shantha tracks how vulnerable one such group — the transgender community — is in India’s prisons.
Sukanya finds that many trans-women were forced into male prisons where they faced physical and sexual violence. In the testimonies recorded, trans prisoners said that their complaints are routinely overlooked by prison authorities. So also are their medical needs.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, passed in 2019, creates trouble for transgender prisoners. It mandates legal gender recognition and requires an individual to apply for a “transgender certificate”.
In this backdrop, Sukanya notes, a transgender person who enters prison without this certificate is at the mercy of prison authorities and doctors to “recognise” and “certify” them on the basis of their genitals’
What makes any redressal of these issues difficult is the lack of data on transgender prisoners. Prison statistics published by the NCRB are inadequate — they only record data along a narrow male-female binary. Transgender people are not counted separately.
The Wire explains what the major findings of Sukanya Shantha’s report are
Like our work? Click here to support The Wire: https://thewire.in/support
The founding premise of The Wire is this: if good journalism is to survive and thrive, it can only do so by being both editorially and financially independent. This means relying principally on contributions from readers and concerned citizens who have no interest other than to sustain a space for quality journalism. As a publication, The Wire will be firmly committed to the public interest and democratic values.
We publish in four different languages!
For English, visit www.thewire.in
for Hindi: http://thewirehindi.com/
for Urdu: http://thewireurdu.com
for Marathi: https://marathi.thewire.in
If you are a young writer or a creator, you can submit articles, essays, photos, poetry – anything that’s straight out of your imagination – to LiveWire, The Wire’s portal for the young, by the young. https://livewire.thewire.in/
You can also follow The Wire’s social media platforms and engage with us.
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https://twitter.com/thewirehindi
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