Despite having been granted recognition as the ‘third gender’, it seems the transgender community in India has a long way to go before the marginalisation finally comes to an end. During the discourse on The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi deplorably referred to the transgender community as “others”.
While discussing the Bill, Gandhi said, “The Bill focuses on the victim (of trafficking). If a voluntary sex worker is not a victim, has not been trafficked, has no one to blame for his or her problem; or other ones,” she continued, after being prompted to address them as ‘TGs’, “TG’s problem. Then there is no question of my harassing them or the police having anything to do with them. The Bill is not intended to facilitate or to harass sex workers.”
Unable to grasp her own dismissal of the gender non-binary, Gandhi broke into a nervous smile, followed by indecent laughter from other MPs. She was called out by Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule, who then told her, “How will the Bill address the issues of transgenders; how will they be protected? Because they are completely left out. Also, please do not call them ‘others’. It’s a humble request. It has to be a ‘male’, ‘female’ and ‘TGs’. It would be very kind if you would not call them ‘others’ because they are not ‘others’. I’d appreciate that and I’m sure she will look into it.”
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Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi speaking in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Thursday, July 26, 2018.
However, Gandhi’s casual act of debasing the transgender community did not go unnoticed. Meera Sanghamitra, who works with the National Alliance for People’s Movements, expressed her discontentment with Gandhi’s otherisation of the trans community on Facebook.
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Terming her words “extremely reprehensible, derogatory and insensitive,” Sanghamitra wrote “So, the ‘saviour-of-all species’ went on to refer to persons of all genders, beyond the male-female binary as ‘the other ones’, rolled her eyes out not knowing what to call us, gave out this horribly embarrassing laugh and then called us ‘TGs’ ! And this was followed by an equally insensitive laughter by quite a few MPs in the House!”
She added, “Such an utter disgrace for humanity, this woman! For all her love for pets and pigs and pigeons and ponies, she seems to have forgotten to love people enough!” Here is her full Facebook post:
Others too condemned the Union Minister’s blunder:
Shame @Manekagandhibjp Apologise for such derogatory reference and gesture. Not cool Madam #NotOtherOnes https://t.co/aFWJ3oh4Wp
— Guneet Kaur (@GuneetKaurAhuja) July 27, 2018
Shame @Manekagandhibjp Apologise for such derogatory reference and gesture. Not cool Madam #NotOtherOnes https://t.co/aFWJ3oh4Wp
— Guneet Kaur (@GuneetKaurAhuja) July 27, 2018
Not the ‘other ones’ minister. Apologise! @Manekagandhibjp #maneka #manekagandhi #transgender https://t.co/ucc4OWVMkA
— Shihabudeen Kunju S (@skunjus) July 27, 2018
