Marginal Identity: Narratives of Transgender People in Accessing Identification and Welfare Schemes in Bangalore India

Existence of transgender people in India has been acknowledged even in ancient texts. From having coexisted – even though not essentially as equal citizens always – and accepted largely by the society, the transgender people became reviled and pushed to the fringes of the society over time. Most notably from the time of the British Rule. The plight and the problems of the transgender people were largely neglected until recently. And, the society in general lacks the understanding of who a transgender is. In the recent years, several organisations have sprung up that work for the betterment of the status of the transgender people. Owing to the work of these organisations, many times led by transgender persons themselves, the awareness about the people and their problems has grown. As a consequence, transgender people have gained access to voting, contest in elections and even have beauty pageants. Also, there have been sporadic policies and welfare schemes that have been started by several state governments, most notably, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The Central Government’s ambitious identity scheme, ‘Aadhaar’ launched in 2010 was the first to provide for a person to declare oneself as ‘transgender’. The Supreme Court in 2014 delivered a landmark judgment directing that appropriate steps be taken by the Government to protect the rights of the transgender people, including the option of according reservation in education and employment. A Private Member’s Bill was passed in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of the Parliament with similar intent in April 2015. Some of the results of the activism are noteworthy. A transgender person has become the Principal of an educational institution in Kolkata. There is a TV anchor in Tamil Nadu conducting her own show. A radio channel exclusively run by transgender people has started in Bangalore. And, the latest is, a transgender person in Tamil Nadu has become a police Sub Inspector. Yet, there is still violence against the transgender – largely by the police. Also, their sexuality continues to be troubled with the Supreme Court upholding the validity of Sec. 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises ‘unnatural sex’. This study has been carried out to understand the lives and difficulties of the transgender people living in Bangalore, in the backdrop of the introduction of ‘Aadhaar’ which provides for a person to identify one’s gender as ‘transgender’, a first in the country, and the pension scheme ‘Mythri’ launched by the Government of Karnataka, for the transgender people. This paper looks at the experiences of the transgender people in accessing the identity and welfare schemes launched by the governments and their adequacy, along with ascertaining their knowledge of the developments taking place in the spheres of governance. The study used interviews to elicit information from the transgender people, apart from relying on secondary sources of information to set the context.