The Many Rapes Of India's Transgender Citizens

On the day of her arrest in Ariyamangalam, Kanmani (name changed) was wearing a black shiny sari with gold stars embroidered along its length. After the police cut her hair, they handed her a veshti, shirt and warned her to answer 바카라�male바카라� when asked for her gender in court.

Three days after her remand to Trichy Central Jail, a warden raped Kanmani in her cell.

Yet Another Rape Story

An Enquiry Report, filed in a Trichy court by District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) Deputy Chief Counsel S Subburaj, says the prison authorities 바카라�checked the CCTV footage of the occurrence date바카라� and found it (her allegations of rape) was true.바카라�

Kanmani바카라�s alleged rapist roams free. Her story is not an unusual one.

A 2015 report by the National Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance (NIBBS), the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare states that 31.5 per cent of transwomen said their first sexual encounter with a man was non-consensual/forced.

Most of the women reported being minors at the time of the sexual assault바카라�30 per cent were 15 to 17-years-old and 26 per cent were under 14-years-old.

바카라�The warden said no one will believe me바카라�

Kanmani바카라�s earliest memory is when she was four years in an orphanage in Chennai. Declared male at birth, she바카라�d been given boys바카라� clothes to wear. Most of her childhood experiences are of abandonment, alienation and abuse바카라�emotional and violently physical.

She never met her parents. The orphanage told her to move out when she came out as transgender at 18. Rendered homeless, she sought refuge with the elder transgender people (naiks). She was soon forced into prostitution. Even the naiks beat her with iron rods if earnings fell short.

바카라�Sometimes I think, what else could this world have in store for me? It바카라�s a scary thought,바카라� she says.

When a 24-year-old Kanmani arrived in Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) in March 2024, she was looking for a fresh start, friends, and a home to call her own. She alleges that, instead, police arrested her in a false theft case. When K Mareeswaran, a warden in charge of her cell block expressed interest in her gender identity, Kanmani initially thought he was showing her kindness. However, when the next day, the warden let himself into her jail cell바카라�without prior permission or notification to any other officer바카라�she understood his motives.

바카라�I asked him not to misbehave because he as an officer would get into trouble, but also because I too would be punished for doing such things inside the jail,바카라� she said.

바카라�The warden said no one will believe you; what I say is the final thing,바카라� said Kanmani. Seeing her rapist바카라�s self-assuredness, Kanmani said, 바카라�I stopped protesting and decided to accept what was happening to me.바카라� She could not scream during the ordeal; Mareeswaran covered her mouth with his hand.

After the assault, a distraught Kanmani grew increasingly depressed, and attempted suicide. Eventually, she confided in the jail바카라�s counsellor about what had happened, and the counsellor told the Director General.

CCTV footage shows the warden entering Kanmani바카라�s jail cell with no prior permission or reason, and leaving after an hour, thus corroborating the transwoman바카라�s allegations.

When Kanmani engaged a lawyer to compel the authorities to file an FIR, the DG Prisons came to see her. 바카라�He asked me to say that this incident happened with my consent and sign on that,바카라� she said. Kanmani refused.

The next day, a police inspector and an SI she did not know came to the jail and 바카라�threatened me that if I don바카라�t sign the letter, they바카라�ll file another case against me.바카라� When she refused again, Kanmani was thrown into solitary confinement, a dark, windowless room.

Subburaj바카라�s Enquiry Report dated July 15 says, 바카라�Nobody conducted any enquiry regarding the occurrence.바카라�

Section 18 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, says physical, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse of a transgender person is punishable by imprisonment of up to two years.

As a police officer accused of raping a person in his care바카라�a crime which would have meant minimum 10 years jail time had Kanmani been a cisgender woman바카라�Mareeswaran got a suspension. At the time of writing this story, Trichy jail authorities and police had not registered an FIR against the warden.

Kanmani considered herself fortunate to have met her lawyer C Balakrishanan through another inmate. Through Balakrishanan, Kanmani moved a bail application on July 7. This was granted a few weeks later. 바카라�From the day I met this lawyer, people started watching out for me and I felt secure,바카라� she said.

Authorities tend to ignore transgender persons바카라� pleas for help, says Grace Banu, a transgender woman and Dalit activist.

Uncounted Citizens

As per the 2011 census, there are 4,88,000 Indian citizens who identify themselves as transgender. In 2020, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded only 236 crime victims who were transgender. The most recent NCRB report (2022) registered nine transgender murder victims, and no rapes involving transgender people.

The Transgender Protection Act, meant to protect transgender people, is rarely invoked. In 2020 and 2022, NCRB reports show all Indian states or union territories, except Tamil Nadu, registered zero cases under the Act. In Tamil Nadu, only one case was registered in 2020 and 2022. In 2021, NCRB registered seven cases across West Bengal, Assam, and Kerala.

The transgender community comprises 0.53 per cent of the country바카라�s population yet they constitute 0.006 per cent of all crime victims.

The transgender community is 바카라�facing a particular kind of discrimination in the public sector, by the government officials,바카라� says Banu.

These numbers are not a reflection of safety, but rather failure of law enforcement to register crimes against transgender folks. 바카라�Government officials are not always trans-friendly; rather everywhere we see transphobia,바카라� says Banu.

바카라�What will it take for the cops to file an FIR: my death?바카라�

For months, Banu has been the target of a violent hate campaign. Her dairy farm, which is also a work-shelter for transgender people in Thoothukudi district, has been repeatedly broken into and vandalised. She receives threatening calls daily.

The campaign against her began, she says, because she helped a gender non-conforming minor emancipate themselves from their abusive family.

CCTV footage shows a large group breaking into her home, roughing up residents. Recordings of the phone calls she received reveal threats to her life, in which the callers tell her that being a Dalit transwoman, her murder would 바카라�be easy.바카라�

Banu shared both video and audio evidence of these threats to her life with her local police, who didn바카라�t register an FIR under the Transgender Protection Act, the SC/ST Act, nor under Section 506 IPC/Section 110 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (threat to injure or kill.)

바카라�They told me they would call the numbers and speak to the people threatening me and give them a warning,바카라� she said.

Only after approaching higher officials did the local SP of police acknowledge Banu and other residents of her farm could be in danger. 바카라�Now they바카라�re saying we are patrolling around the trans-village (the local name for Banu바카라�s farm), and they바카라�ve told me to call them when I receive more threatening calls.바카라� At the time of writing this story, Banu had received several such calls바카라�the perpetrators had shown that they are monitoring her movements. The police had still not registered an FIR on her complaint.

바카라�Doesn바카라�t my case show why transgender people don바카라�t go complain to police often?바카라� she asks.

Her voice hoarse, Banu says, 바카라�I am relatively well-known in this city for my work, and these people are openly threatening my life while the cops have given me no support.바카라�

After a brief pause, she adds, 바카라�Are they waiting for my death? I don바카라�t know!바카라�

바카라�The stereotype is that a transgender person does only begging and sex work.바카라�

G Kajol walks into her corner shop in the Trichy District Collector바카라�s office wearing a flower motif dress and freshwater pearl jewellery. She바카라�s particularly proud of the way she looks. 바카라�Everything I바카라�m wearing I bought with my own money without doing begging or sex work.바카라�

A member of the Tamil Nadu Transgender Welfare Board, Kajol also runs the Social Action for Emancipation (SAFE), an NGO working towards self-sufficiency in the transgender and other minority communities.

She notes that Kanmani had no transgender identification card, which is why the police could put her in the male prison.

Transgender ID cards are issued by the state governments after medical examinations. In Tamil Nadu, the examination was recently made oral. In other Indian states, transgender people report the examination itself is a form of humiliation. 바카라�There are male doctors only and one must strip in front of them. It is dehumanising,바카라� said Kajol.

However, an ID card can be a lifesaver for transgender people, literally. This is why, according to 2023 data made public by the Ministry of Social Justice, 24, 115 transgender people applied for the ID the previous year. However, data also shows that only 15,800 were granted their ID, and another 3,200 applications were pending for months as of December 2022.

바카라�Without an ID card, it is a struggle to find work, or even move through society. Without this, it feels like you cannot assert your rights and you바카라�re half a citizen,바카라� said Kajol.

Kajol came out to her family in the 1990s. She says it took them time to accept her gender identity because 바카라�all they knew of transgender people was begging and sex work.바카라� She adds that this is a default stereotype for the community in society, and 바카라�it바카라�s hurting us as well.바카라�

She still lives with them. This is unlike the 98 per cent of the transgender people in India, who according to a 2018 report by the National Human Rights Commission, leave their biological families.

Killed by Family

Banu바카라�s collective conducts studies every year on crimes against transgender people. 바카라�From November 2022 to November 2023, we found 33 trans people were killed by their own family members, particularly in Tamil Nadu,바카라� she said.

Among those murdered, Banu found that three of the transgender persons were above 30, and two of them were transgender men. 바카라�Just imagine in one year 33 transpersons are killed, and most of them are trans women and under 30 years old!바카라� she added.

The study also found two suicides in the same time period. 바카라�Those incidents were also due to harassment from family members. All the others were killed by their own family members and relatives,바카라� said Banu.

One way to harass transgender people, according to Banu, is a family or relatives taking them for conversion therapy바카라� what she calls conversion torture. Though conversion therapy was banned in India in 2022, Banu contends the practice is alive and well in rural areas. 바카라�There are also priests바카라� Hindu and Christian바카라� who will perform exorcisms on these people, saying they will cure them, which is very traumatic,바카라� she added. 바카라�If any other community was facing these kind of situations, there would be a hue and cry. But here, nothing has happened.바카라�

(This appeared in the print as 'An Uncounted Rape')