“Kerala has exclusive healthcare facilities for elephants, but none for people like us. We are unwelcome everywhere,” lamented transgender activist Sheethal Shyam.
The State made a head start in the right direction by formulating a policy on transgenders, but that remained to be implemented, Sheethal added during an interaction with students of the RLV College of Music and Fine Arts at Thripunithura on Friday.
The event – in which male-to-female and female-to-male transgenders and a transwoman of the hijra community sensitised the crowd to issues of discrimination and harassment faced by them everyday — was organised by artists’ collective Kalakakshi as part of their ‘Opener’ series of cultural exchanges.
In the backdrop of the freewheeling dialogue were images from a just-concluded photo exhibition that essayed the much-maligned, tormented body of transgender people.
Largely boycotted and targeted alike by the mainstream society, transgenders often shift base to Bengaluru, to be in the comfort of a larger community there, pointed out Sheethal.
Sonu Niranjan, who is on the path to becoming a transman biologically, said the process, if done in a certified fashion, took longer than desired.
“Still, not every sexual reassignment surgery is available in accredited centres in India. But there are clinics that do this by the trial and error method and at varying rates. Even the initial counselling takes two years,” Sonu observed, maintaining there should be certified facilities and guidelines for these procedures.
Not every transgender person aspired to change biologically, maintained Sheethal, who also touched upon the numerous categories of sexual and gender minorities referred to by the blanket term, transpeople.
Deepthi, native of Guruvayoor who has become a transwoman medically, related her instances of torture at the hands of her older brother.
