Bihar Food and civil supplies minister Shyam Rajak on Friday said that it is high time that society accords the third gender (TG) opportunities for mainstreaming. He announced that his ministry would give preference to applications from eligible TG and Hijra residents who wish to open PDS shops.

The minister was among a slew of civil society representatives who attended the second “Hijra Habba’ organized by Pehchan North Region Office.

The event was an opportunity for TG representatives from five districts to interact with civil society, give vent to their grievances and voice to their aspirations. A few Hijra gurus in the city attended, including Lallan Hijra, fairly well known for her community work and political aspirations. Great work by Pehchan North Regional Office, a part of the India HIV AIDS Alliance, to get some very difficult Hijra Gurus together in the same room!

The Minister of course, made all the correct noises about the TG and Hijra communities being marginalised for over a century and that certain powerful people, over the years have aided and abetted their marginalisation. Predictably, he advised the TG community members to turn to ‘other avenues’ than ‘entertainment’ to supplement their income and gain respectability. He assured us all at the Habba, that his government was all for achieving social justice in Bihar in its true spirit.

Promises and assurances flowed from the dais. Om Prakash, member secretary of the Bihar State Legal Authority promised transgenders free and competent legal aid in the event of their being harassed or tortured by the police, as well as a clerical position to any TG who had an LLB degree. Both the panel members from the ‘police side’ -Senior Superintendent of Police Vikas Vaihab, and Pramod Kumar who was to represent the GRP- didn’t show up, ostensibly because of the added burden of security arrangements for a political mega-rally on Sunday. Nonetheless, Kumar Deepak a social worker and recipient of ‘Bihar Hero’ award, offered to run a Helpline for TGs; Anil Kumar of BSACS that transgenders who provided the required documentation for the State Government aided schemes such as Antodaya, Parvarish etc would receive these benefits without discrimination and so on.

Of course, Bihar was one of the first states to include the TG community in the list of OBCs following the Supreme Court’s NALSA judgement, but the creation of the TG Board in the hasn’t happened yet. The AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, on the advice of the District administration has submitted a research proposal for a socio-economic survey of transgenders, which will provide a basis for future planning. ANSISS is still awaiting the official nod from the DM to get going!

The Hijra Habba 2015 was a gold mine of news and information, but media presence was negligible. One learned that activist lawyer Vikas Pankaj from the Human Rights Law network has assisted Mx Reshma Prasad to file a PIL demanding the appointment of TG counsellors in the 30 ICTCs run by Bihar State AIDS Society. The issue: if there are male counsellors for men and female counsellors for women, where are the TG counsellors for the third sex in the ICTCs (Information and Counselling Centres for HIV and AIDS)? By the way, the prefixes for men, women, and TG are Mr, Ms, and Mx respectively!

The promises made by many of the invited guests rang hollow, said the TG participants who were attending. How can a TG run a ration shop, when citizens are not just reluctant, but opposed to accord TGs even basic access to rented houses, bank accounts, cinema halls, shopping malls, hotels and so on? Do those who pontificate about children’s rights ever talk about protection of TG children from bullying at school and from violence and abuse by their own parents and families?

Some irony, perhaps unintended: the organisers repeatedly spoke of Mx Monica Das as a ‘role model’ for the community, the first transgender in the country to hold a position in a bank. Monica works in a nationalised bank in the city, and she was present at the Habba. Mx Das surmounted tremendous odds to achieve acceptance in mainstream society, she wasn’t give a place on the dais. The Habba would have benefitted from her perspective and take on mainstreaming had she been part of the panel.

  Bihar, Frank Krishner, Hijra, India HIV Aids alliance, Pehchan North Region Office, transgender