The Third Gender, Free To Fly

A recoiling society banishes transgenders to the wretched margins. As a bill in Parliament pledges protection, these Indians glimpse freedom.

- Minu Ittyipe

“A transgender person is a divine soul. You cannot say if God is a man or woman; it’s the same with us. Though we are affined more to one gender than the other, we definitely have the characteristics of the other gender too. We are unique. We have the capacity to analyse both the physical and mental aspects of both men and women, which drives us to do things that both men and women are capable of.”

—Narthaki Nataraj, classical dancer

In May this year, the Asian edition of Time featured a survivor in war-torn South Sudan on the cover. “I was the only one God left alive,” read the dark headline. But readers in the US received a peppier (yet equally political) offering, with colourful strips of toilet paper dangling down a holder: Battle of the Bathroom, it said. The eight-page story detailed why the fight for transgender rights had moved, in the land of the free at least, into the most intimate of public spaces: the toilet.

Think about it, the washroom as a metaphor of change. And then, think about the number of times you have thought about how half-a-million people out of a billion-plus might be using it in schools, colleges, offices, hospitals, railway stations and cinema halls. In a nation where public toilets are a luxury even for men and especially for women, thinking about the needs of 0.04 per cent of the population might seem fuuristic, but as independent India turns platinum, now is a good time. 

Reason #1: In 2014, the Supreme Court accorded the status of ‘third gender’ to transgender people, giving them the right to determine the gender they identify with. 

Reason #2: Since 2015, at least three MPs of three regional parties—DMK, TMC and BJD—have moved private members’ bills in Parliament for their welfare.