83. Making a case for transgender sports league

Transgender: Cast in stone

How can life remain unchanged for those who have been relentless in showering good wishes and blessings on others? As if cast in stone, the attire and demeanor remains fixed with the conspicuous clap being their de facto identity. These distinct traits seem inbuilt into their DNA, though none of them procreate to facilitate its inter-generational transfer. Dressed in glittering dresses, with heavily coated cheap makeup, they crash fancy weddings and birth ceremonies. At crowded intersections, they knock at car windows demanding alms for being outcasts of the society.  

It is hard to miss them, and they scorn at being ignored. In their own mind the hijras hold the society collectively responsible for their transgender plight. Perhaps, the reason for them to seek monetary favors even at the cost of being socially despised. Including transgender and intersex persons, they assert to be looked after for being secluded from the mainstream of existence. This has left them with little option but to use theatrics to their advantage. However, behind their theatrics are often sad stories — of the sex trade and exploitation, cruel and dangerous castrations, being cast out and constantly humiliated. 

UN estimates that up to 1.7 per cent of the world's population are born with intersex traits, and as per 2011 census there were some 480,000 transgender people in India. In most countries around the world, intersex people are subject to social discrimination as the state has failed to assign them a gendered identity. While the Indian Constitution does not exclude transgender persons from its ambit, the social reality for them is loaded with prejudice and disdain. Perhaps the only of a kind landmark ruling in Germany has paved the way for an intersex identity law that allows people to choose the 'diverse' category on official documents. 

One wonders why transgenders have not been socially accepted, and accorded dignified living when they have been in existence ever since? Under traditional culture, transgenders enjoyed a certain degree of respect, and under Mughal rule served many administrative positions and also as the sexless watchdogs of their harems. But the British turned the tables on them, bringing a strict sense of judgment to sexual mores that led to mainstream discomfort beyond the binary of male and female identities. Consequently, they continue to be considered far from equal to the other two genders.

As guided aversion plays on our psyche, we often view those who come knocking at our car windows in crowded intersections as beggars in disguise. Ironically, we miss them for their immense emotional resilience and incredible physical endurance. They persist against unimaginable odds while showering blessings and good wishes on the rest. In recent times, however, few transgenders have jumped the social barricade by establishing themselves as beauticians and politicians. However, for the sizable number who come from lower middle class backgrounds such opportunities are few and far between.  

Little is realized that their inbuilt biology can come good at competitive sports. They carry higher testosterone levels that come in the way of their participation in major sporting events. What stops the world to create a new category that can break the rigid gender binary in competitive events? The Mx category has been designed to include transgender, gender expansive and intersex individuals, but pretty little has been done to implement it. As systems operate within a gender bias, discrimination doesn't end off of the playing field despite the world having gone beyond the binary of only Adam and Eve. 

Even Lord Rama didn't realize that there were other than Adam and Eve when he had exhorted those following their exiled prince into the forest: “Men and women, please wipe your tears and go away.” Most left but a group of people stayed behind, at the edge of the forest, because they were neither men nor women. They were the transgender who waited in the woods for 14 years until Lord Rama returned, which won them a special place in Hindu mythology. Pleased with their devotion, Lord Rama blessed them to bless others on various auspicious occasions like childbirth and marriage.

With the tallest statue of Lord Rama being erected to resurrect mythology, leaving those who were blessed by him to remain unblessed will only leave them muted. As atma nirbharta is the leitmotif of present political dispensation, leaving transgender at the mercy of an indifferent society demands serious consideration. Creating sporting leagues for transgender games will be a fitting tribute to their 4,000 years history.

First published in The Hindu on April 17, 2022.