The Heart-Wrenching Story Of A Sex Worker Turned Government Officer

[JANASENA]

The winter of 1996 shivered with his laments. He was raped at the age of 16. It was his uncle. For years, the fear of being beaten and raped lived inside him. It took a few seconds for his uncle to wear the face of that fear.

He was different. He was a male-to-female transgender person. His lineaments made him look the very image of a man, but his soul was female. It took him almost a decade to come out of the closet and become Amruta from Paul.

“Our cultural ideals are – all people with penises are uniquely capable of perpetrating violence and without penises are susceptible to this violence. Transgender people were the easiest targets back then. No legal recognition, unbothered society and emotionally unmoved family,” Amruta speaks about her ordeal.

Amruta is a 34-year-old transgender woman with a gamut of feminine intangibles. She has curly hair, feminine breasts, and a beautiful smile. Beyond this, Amruta is the first Nodal Officer of Migrant Workers Health Camp of Chhattisgarh.

She sits with her legs crossed at the ankle and speaks comfortably about her journey from offering sex to becoming a human rights activist.

“My family indoctrinated me to believe that I was a boy. I went to school in boys’ uniform. Till the age of 10, I woke up almost every morning wishing to look like a girl. I was in a wrong body. From inside, I felt like a tender beautiful girl wanting to drape colorful saris, wear makeup and dance. But, I looked like a boy. More than that, my parents felt I was a boy. They were virgin of the idea of me being a transgender person. Neither I could openly express nor was I understood.”

 

Transgender children, the most marginalised group, are the victims of silent treatment. It is when you purposely ignore someone’s existence in society. A study shows that transgender children become aware about their identity at a very young age. The research conducted by Natacha Kennedy in 2008 explains that transgender children experience social and cultural pressure that pushes them to conceal their identities.

 

The average age of transgender children to become aware of their identity is 8. At schools, these children are assigned either male or female genders, which subjects transgender children to gender dysphoria. It affects mental health, behaviour and physical activity of a transgender child.

 

Fearing social ostracism, Amruta’s family sent her to Delhi in 1997. She lived with her uncle. For six months, she sang along guitar in a famous hotel before the brooding winter evening of Christmas when she was raped. Her family rejected her accusations against her uncle. Her father lost all impetus and threw her out of the home. She climbed on a random train and went to Pune. She slept on a garden chair and washed utensils in a petty tea stall for a week before she became visible to sex workers. She started selling sex to earn and complete her higher education. After two years of this cycle, she enrolled for Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi for graduation in Arts.

 

“In mid-90s, getting jobs in call centers was pretty easy. People used to think that I am gay. Working in a call center came with many risks. I could grow beard but not hide my femininity. I became a victim to workplace harassment. I was asked to barter my body for promotion. I started sex work again. Prostitution is not legal in India. Therefore, policemen felt free to nab and rape us. I was beaten and raped,” Amruta rues.

 

After Delhi, Pune was her next destination. She nursed ambition of post graduation and enrolled for MBA programme in Symbiosis Institute of Business Management as a transsexual woman. Every night, she powdered her face and painted her lips to dance in a local bar. “It was necessary. I had to pay Rs 4 lakh per year for my MBA. Transgender women are offered no decent jobs. Bars are liberal till you fetch them money. Bars don’t care if you are a woman or transgender. Boys in my college called me ‘Chakka’, ‘Mamu’, ‘Passive’ and ‘bar girl’.” Amruta adds.

 

Till April 2014, transgender people had no legal recognition. Even after MBA, Amruta was jobless. She climbed the trains, clapped and begged. One such train took her to Kolahpur.

 

In 2008, she joined Maitri Foundation as an Outreach Worker. She used to distribute condoms and raise awareness about HIV AIDS. “In between, I grew my hair – it was as if she was growing wings to my body. I underwent sex reassignment surgery, implanted uterus and breasts – and it was like giving sentiments to my suppressed soul,” she adds.

 

In 2012, she was diagnosed HIV positive. Since then, she has been working for the human rights of people living with HIV with Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT). On November 5, Chhattisgarh State AIDS Control Society (CSACS) appointed her as the first transgender woman nodal officer for migrant workers health camp.

 

According to the India’s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), HIV prevalence amongst transgenders is 20 times higher than the general population. National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) with the funding support from UNICEF awarded contract to Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT) for setting up the Technical Support Unit (TSU) for Chhattisgarh State AIDS Control Society (CGSACS).

 

India was in its wiser days back in 1297. Eunuchs in India were accorded respect in Delhi Sultanate and Mughal court. “The Last Spring: The Lives and Times of the Great Mughals”, a well-researched book by Abraham Eraly throws light on the life of Malik Kafur, a eunuch who exercised great influence over Alauddin Khilji. A class of “transvestite singers, dancers and prostitutes” known as hijras are contemporary representatives of the unmales and third gender of earlier times. Transgender people had a happy history. Today, transgender people are harbingers of harsh reality in a partial democracy like India.

 

Straight people are the victims of good fortune and transgender people of unbalanced hormonal equation. Activists say some progress is being made in lifting discrimination. We cannot expect tectonic shift, but all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Transgender people have these same human rights. Even if we are straight, gay, lesbian or transgender, we should revolt against the fixity of gender. We form the society. Do we want progression or regression?

 

If society works on a singular motto – subjugation of weaker by stronger, minority by majority – then should we not question it? Transgender people have gained only what society has been willing to grant; they have taken nothing, they have only received. We are still giving them harassment, stares, and discrimination. We are denying them basic human rights.

 

We should believe in a strong, democratic society that embraces diversity and systematically respects the rights and dignity of all. Like nothing is black and white, nothing is male or female; it’s the transgender people stifled between these two extreme identities.