It has been more than three months since Shalu, a transwoman, was strangulated to death in the heart of Kozhikode city. Though the investigation has been thorough, the police are yet to identify the murderer.
After the murder, a feeling of insecurity has gripped members of the community. “I look above my shoulder at every turn, when I walk back home late in the evening,” says Jasmine, a dancer.
She says she was almost raped once, when a few men cornered her in a street near her home. “I dread being close to men, and if I have to do it, the anxiety kills me,” she says.
Harassment by men
“After the incident, harassment by men has increased. They don’t hesitate to remind us the plight of Shalu. They think they can get away with hurting us, since no one cares about us,” Jasmine says, adding that there is a drastic decline in the number of transgenders staying out at night in Kozhikode.
It is the generalisation that every transwoman is a sex worker that hurts many of them. “There are barely 70 transwomen in Kozhikode, who engage in sex trade. But people view most of us through the same glass,” complained Sisily George, president of the Punarjani Cultural Society for welfare of transpersons.
Many have been harassed by their employers or co-workers that they leave their job.
Susmi, president of the Sahodari Cultural Society, feels though the government has accepted them, society is yet to. “They continue to suppress us. They make fun of us; do not sit beside us in buses and avoid us in public. It hurts,” she said.
Sisily George recently went to the police after a KSRTC conductor asked her to sit in the back seat lest anyone else is offended by her presence in the bus. “There is a lack of awareness in society regarding us. There are doctors, teachers and even policemen who do not know what we are,” Sisily says.
Stronger by experience
Susmi, however, thinks that all the bad experiences have made the community members stronger at heart. “Most of us have abandoned our families and homes. We have gone through hell. Though we are hurt by the taunts, we have learnt to bear it,” she said.
But that is not the case with younger people, who are yet to come out and declare their gender status. “I never attended a wedding in my childhood or went to a restaurant. I feared that the taunts at school will follow me to those places. I will be hiding when we had guests at home,” Jasmine says, adding that she was under severe depression for many years and even contemplated suicide. However, her family supported her to embrace the new gender identity and the dance background certainly helped.
