MADURAI
Welcoming the recent recommendations of the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to India with respect to intersex rights, Gopi Shankar, intersex activist and anchor of the student movement, Srishti Madurai, said that the government must duly implement them.
The committee had expressed serious concern about the prevalence of infanticide, sex normalisation surgeries, rampant bullying and stigmatisation against intersex people in the country. It had also recommended to the government adoption of strategies to prevent sex normalisation surgeries on intersex children and infants.
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“This is a landmark moment as this is the first time that a UN committee has given such strong recommendations to India. We welcome the concluding remarks of the committee which ask the government to preserve the physical and mental integrity of intersex people,” said Mr. Gopi.
He said that the committee had arrived at the conclusion based on the report submitted by civil society organisations, including Srishti Madurai and NNID, the Netherlands, an organisation working for the rights of gender identity.
While Mr. Gopi hailed the Tamil Nadu government’s order of August 13 banning sex normalisation surgeries on intersex children and infants, he said that follow-up steps had not been taken. “The Directorate of Medical Education has been instructed to implement the order. However, till date there has been no communication to the DME,” said Mr. Gopi.
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