Pride Beyond Rainbows: The Gap Between Trans* Rights and Policy Implementation In Karnataka
Since it is Pride Month, we all are witnessing a host of rainbows around us. While claiming to be queer-affirming, most corporations profit from these vague and solely aesthetic displays with no material action. However, material action which involves support from institutions like the state is central to queer-affirmative work. The rainbows will fade, unlike rights.
Within the queer community, transgender people are the most marginalized. Indeed, demanding rights in a society that privileges cis-gender peoples’ rights at the cost of other trans* people is a steep slope. Amongst a host of other rights that trans people cannot avail, obstacles exist in accessing basic rights such as IDs for education and reservations.
Karnataka Trans* Policy, 2017
With the aim of countering this, in 2017, which was almost 5 years ago, Karnataka passed the Karnataka State Policy On Transgender Persons, 2017 with a comprehensive set of laws. Preceding that, it was the first state to provide one percent reservation in government jobs for people from the trans community.
The policy is broad in nature and primarily aims “to empower transgender persons and protect their fundamental rights.” Moreover, it “encourages all departments of the Government to include the development of transgender persons in their programmes and schemes.”
While the policy has existed on paper for half a decade, it remains ignored at the level of implementation.
So even though trans* persons have rights and welfare that they can avail on paper, in reality, they continue to struggle to access basic rights. This is primarily because not enough budget allocations have been made by the state government to ensure its implementation.
What you can do:
Jhatkaa.org, alongside organizations speared by the members of the trans* community and Haiyya, are running a campaign to demand adequate budget allocation for the successful implementation of the policy. Join us by signing now!
Note: Trans* is an umbrella term to describe people whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth. Trans people may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including (but not limited to) transgender, non-binary, or genderqueer. (source: Stonewall.org)
