new Delhi: The classroom isn’t usually a problem, but the staffroom often is. This is a defense of the many trans and gender non-conforming teachers who are struggling to work with dignity in schools across India.
“Why do you dress like a man? When will you get married? Why were you at the Pride Parade?” These are some of the questions Koel Ghosh, a 32-year-old English and theater teacher, has had to ask colleagues from elite private schools in Kolkata.
Ghosh, whose preferred pronoun is they/them, identifies as non-binary and transmasculine. He was assigned female at birth, but his gender expression is masculine.
In a career spanning seven years, Ghosh has worked at five schools, but the insensitivity of his peers has made it difficult to stay long. At one point, Ghosh said, she faced a tough choice from school officials: wear a sari at events such as Independence Day celebrations or resign. Ghosh resigned.
Earlier this month, social science teacher Jane Kaushik, a 29-year-old transgender woman, claimed in a social media video that she was forced to resign from a school in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri because of her gender identity . She was just in position for a week or so.
“I was eligible for the position, the school did a thorough investigation and then hired me on the condition that I would not reveal my identity,” Kaushik told ThePrint.
He wanted a job, so he accepted the stifling condition. However, she soon “fizzled out”.
“I am a 6 ft tall woman with broad shoulders. I can wear a saree and wear traditional clothes, but how do I change my body?” she asked.
Kaushik alleged that not only did he hear the students abusing Trans genderBut a male teacher is also asking female boarding students about her “behaviour” in the hostel.
She claimed that he tried to reason with the students, telling them that he belonged to a “minority” community and that there were laws to help people like him. But she was frustrated by the adults around her. “Only conscious students can make up for conscious adults, but how will children’s attitudes change if adults continue to promote stigma?” he said. “Being a trans person is hard in itself. With such brutal scrutiny even in educated places, how can we be expected to act normally?”
Last week, the National Commission for Women (NCW) Asked Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh to investigate Kaushik’s allegation of gender discrimination. Meanwhile, school officials have claimed that she was fired because of “incompetence”.
Kaushik is now demanding not only to be re-hired, but also for the school to apologize and conduct gender-sensitization workshops.
The irony is that teachers like Ghosh and Kaushik are relatively “privileged” despite their considerable challenges. They speak English, are highly educated, and have been able to make it through the hiring rounds of private schools.
The barriers are even greater in government schools, although this year Karnataka became first state To establish one percent reservation for trans candidates. the community had three teachers Recruitment Out of 10 applicants in Nov.
However, when ThePrint spoke to several private and government schools in Delhi, none of them had any trans teachers nor were they aware of the legal provisions that provide for equal opportunities in employment as well as for trans workers. demand for basic facilities.
Read also: ‘She’s not always a woman to me’: court cases on ‘gender-deception’ expose the true cost of stigma
Sweet and sour ‘success’
When Manabi Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D. Appointed As principal of Krishnanagar Women’s College in West Bengal in 2015, she was celebrated as the first transgender woman in India to make it so high up the ladder in an institution of higher education.
However, this was not the end of his struggles. Bandyopadhyay told ThePrint that she resigned from the position in 2016 after staff and students turned against her and “gheraoed” her because they felt “they could not accept a trans person in a position of power”. Could have done”.
However, the then education minister of the state, Partha Chatterjee, refused to accept his resignation and he started again His duties as head. He was later transferred to Dhola Mahavidyalaya, University of Calcutta in 2019. Even that move created controversy as a government order. Identified him as a ‘man’.
Even now, true acceptance eludes Bandyopadhyay.
“Covert microaggressions have traumatized me over the years in such a way that I feel there is no way to sensitize people,” she said. “On the surface, society may accept us, but they subconsciously keep rejecting us at every step.”
Not just schools or colleges, many workplaces also create practical problems for trans people.
Teacher Koel Ghosh is also the Managing Trustee of Sappho for Equality, an organization working for the rights of trans people and other sexually marginalized groups.
Collectively, the organization is trying to find agencies that will help queer and trans people find jobs. One of the many things they are trying to do is raise awareness about the need for gender neutral toilets/washrooms.
“We have had cases where gay people have worked for 12 hours straight without using the toilet,” Ghosh said.
Furthermore, many trans people are mistreated at their place of work. This can range from ignoring their preferred pronouns to using their “dead names”. A dead name refers to a gender name given at birth that a trans person no longer identifies with.
Teaching can be particularly challenging because it involves a lot of conversation and inquiry.
This is one reason why a 32-year-old trans man who grew up in Punjab decided to pursue a B.Ed. Degree dull.
Speaking to ThePrint under the condition of anonymity, he said he always aspired to be a teacher but held back fearing discrimination.
“I wanted to be able to sustain myself and have a job. I knew that no school would hire me if I came out. Even when I changed my stream and joined a bank, I knew I would be an outcast as soon as I came out,” he said.
After trying to hide his identity for years, he finally came out in 2020 after losing his banking job due to the pandemic.
Laws have changed, but society hasn’t kept
Members of the LGBTQI+ community ThePrint spoke to said they are fighting for more action as well as more stringent legal protections against workplace discrimination.
However, there have been some gains in this regard. In 2014, the Supreme Court Recognized Treated trans people as a “third gender” in a landmark judgment and asked the government to frame policies to protect their rights.
It finally crystallized into a law in 2019, when the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act was enacted. pass, While it prohibited discrimination in education, work, health care etc., it received some criticism for the terminology used and for not adequately addressing barriers to employment and healthcare.
Another important development was the support for marginalized persons for livelihood and enterprise. (smile) plan, launched in February this year by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Part of the scheme focuses on the welfare of transgender people in areas such as provision of healthcare, education and skill development.
Tinesh Chopde, Advocacy Manager of Mumbai-based Humsafar Trust, an NGO working for LGBTQI+ rights, said that the new law and the SMILE scheme are welcome changes, but the odds against trans people still remain.
She said that when it comes to employment, many trans people struggle to break out of their ‘traditional’ occupations of sex work and begging.
“The biggest challenge transgender and queer children face is getting a qualifying degree. The other big problem for them is getting the right documents. The process is long and tedious and most of them are not educated enough to understand the process.”
Data about the transgender community in India is scant, and perhaps more so given the lack of clarity around terms such as transgender, intersex, non-binary, etc.
According to 2011 census in India is 4.87 lakh Trans Citizen.
A 2017 survey A study on transgender rights commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found that 92 percent of trans people in India are deprived of economic opportunities in India and 96 percent earn their living by begging or doing sex work. Most drop out of school.
Even those who are educated and looking for mainstream work have to cross huge hurdles, Chopde explained.
Part of their work also includes training members of the LGBTQI+ community and reaching out to corporations to seek opportunities. Although some companies are willing to employ trans people, their requirements may be unrealistic, he said.
“Sometimes they approach us and ask about a trans person with five-seven years of work experience. How would a trans person feel like this? [Companies] Eliminate space for them at the entry level,” he said.
“At such times, we forward our existing candidates for these jobs. A sex worker bargains to make a decent living. We help him polish that skill and advance him to sales roles. We try to market our skilled workforce over people with work experience.”
However, the social outlook still hasn’t kept up with the authority of the law.
For example, the Kerala government hired 21 transgender employees for the Kochi Metro in 2017 with much fanfare. However, nine of these employees are resigned within a month. The reason was that no landlord in the area was willing to give them accommodation on rent.
then there is adam harry case, India’s first trans pilot. He was declared unfit to fly by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as he was on hormone treatment which would continue for the rest of his life. Harry is now working as a delivery person for Zomato.
Supreme Court in September this year ordered The government will come out with a policy that will open up job opportunities for trans persons within three months. The order comes in the wake of a petition filed by a trans woman Shanvi Ponnusamy who claimed she was rejected as a cabin crew member because of her gender identity.
The court said that India’s transgender law was a “watershed moment” but it needed to be complied with in “letter and spirit”.
(Edited by Asawari Singh)
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