It’s a new barrier broken for the LGBT community and one more chink in the glass ceiling. For the first time ever, a transgender person has been inducted in the police force as an officer in Chennai. The irony is that a few years ago, before transgenders were given a legal identity, the same police routinely rounded them up and arrested them. It’s a mark of a change, and a pretty big one at that.
The Madras high court on Thursday declared that she was entitled to be appointed sub-inspector of police. Calling for creation of a separate category to accommodate transgenders in employment, the judges further said: “We are sure that by the time the next recruitment process is carried out, TNUSRB would have taken corrective measures for including the third gender as a category.”
Though Tamil Nadu police already has three transgenders on their rolls as constables, Yashini will be the first transgender officer in the force. Commending additional advocate general of Tamil Nadu P H Arvindh Pandian for his fair stand on the issue and Yashini’s counsel Bhavani Subbarayan, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana hoped that Yashini would carry out the duties of a police officer with “dedication and commitment to advance the cause of other transgenders.”
The judges who helped her clear all hurdles on the way, said: “The social impact of such recruitment cannot be lost sight of, as it would give strength to the case of transgenders. Yashini must reach the finish line, and not be stopped and disqualified in the middle.”
Yashini was born K Pradeep Kumar and remained a male till she completed her post-graduate diploma in computer application from Bharathiar University. Though she had felt sweeping changes in her gait and body even during her school days, Yashini said she could gather courage to meet a doctor without informing her own parents, only after joining a college.
After she was medically confirmed as a transgender, Yashini left her home to avoid embarrassment to her parents. She then underwent a sex re-assignment surgery and obtained the necessary certificate. She also gazetted her sex change and got an identity card as well. Though she became a transgender in all respects, Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) rejected her application saying her name did not ‘tally’ with original certificates. She first came to the court for permission to take part in the written examination held on May 23, 2015.
Narrating her travails and struggles even for food, Yashini wanted the court to help her lead a “normal life as other citizens.” After succeeding in the first round of litigation, she was able to participate in field trials on August 5. During field trials, she was disqualified on the ground that she failed to qualify in 100 mts race by 1.1 second.
The first bench, however, made light of the time factor, and said: “We do not think that in the physical endurance test, a difference of 1.11 seconds should come in the way of Yashini in being considered for recruitment. She will have to meet the benchmark of recruitment process, but the case cannot be knocked out in the middle.”
The discrimination suffered by transgenders would be difficult for the other two genders to realise, the judges said, adding, “The present case is one where the petitioner was categoriSed as man, though she was a female. She had undergone sufferance of an exit from her house without parental protection. The petitioner has been endeavouring to eke out a living.”
Pointing out that she qualified for the horizontal reservation minimum benchmark of women of ministerial quota, which is 25.5 against which the petitioner had obtained 28.5 marks, the judges said: “It was this which persuaded the court to grant interim orders in her favour.”
Image Courtesy: BCCL
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