Modern World and Transgenders: YEF’s report.
As we head on to a greater world, our mindset is still damaged and not yet fixed from the ancient blow that we are still recovering from. Our race is against time, and what we expect is to be at a similar pace with time and run parallel with it, but we fail to do so and ignore the fact that time is much ahead than we generally think it to be. This is a generation of new thoughts and powerful ideas, and old customs are not much appreciated. Some things can still be done the old way but 98% of the living is now modernized and has been acquired due to the new way of thinking and new ideas.
“It’s all of us versus Patriarchy”.
Living in this modern world we all might have thought of fewer problems and many solutions but we are still stuck at a major problem that shouldn’t be one, Gender Discrimination. There are Men and then there are Women, nothing in between. But as we all know, trans people are given a different identity other than male and female, the reason being a difference in their physical appearance. We need to understand it now that there is no trans, it’s either male or female, and calling them trans or anything else just makes them different from the rest and indirectly excludes them from all common proceedings, and that is not a good thing.
Violence against people from the transgender community is not new. The British infamously registered and controlled Indian transgender persons under the guise of The Criminal Tribes Act, 1971 which considered Hijras (called ‘Eunuchs’ in the Act, a derogatory term referring to castrated men) as criminals and barred them from dressing as women or engaging in their traditional activities.
Hear this case where a trans woman was murdered as she traveled in a cab with two other men. Her name was Alka, who happily wore a saree as she traveled as an independent woman, but as soon as she took that cab her life was endangered and was caught up in a cell from where an escape was not an option. When the news surfaced, Alka was mentioned as a man and was given a deadname, Jaiprakash, which stripped her of her identity. Even in death, her dignity was not respected. As the reports described the case, Alka was, at many places, called a ‘eunuch’, which is a disrespectful term for the entire community of trans people.
Trans women are women. Trans men are men. This is not up for discussion. To deadname a trans person is bad enough.
It was a heinous crime committed on a small misunderstanding that Alka was a transgender woman and not a cisgender. She was killed because the two men realized that Alka was not a cisgender woman but a transgender woman. They felt so angry that they decided to punish her by mutilating her genitalia and then killing her. This took place in Chhattisgarh, at Tattapani.
Violence against the transgender community is not new, It has been going on for ages, and the situation is not better yet. Every year across the world numerous transgender persons are murdered simply because of who they are. A much higher number of sexual and physical violence cases go unreported. Most often the violence is done by their own families and partners. This is the price that transgender folk pay to accept and assert their identity. This is the price they pay for simply existing.
They felt so angry that they decided to punish Alka by mutilating her genitalia and then killing her.
We celebrate many festivals and special occasions of many things and always pray or pledge for a better and happy life. It’s time now we stop being selfish and think of the transgender community that has been suffering for so long and ponder and reflect upon the violence perpetrated against transgender folk, and how we can create a better future for them where every transgender person feels safe and secure and doesn’t think of being murdered or tortured every single day of their life.
It is time to ponder and reflect upon the violence perpetrated against transgender folk, and how we can create a future where every transgender person feels safe and secure and doesn’t think of being murdered every single living day of their life.
Support our campaign Trans People Matter and spread its word so that the public gets aware of what they suffer through in their daily life. Reach out to us on-
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All information regarding Alka’s story is taken from the Internet and Youth Ki Awaaz.
