Transwoman forces Centre to embrace change

How difficult is it for someone to change their name, one might ask? If you speak to Kritika*, it might involve a two-year wait, countless visits to government offices of over three ministries and an indefatigable grit to ensure her rights are not overlooked by nonchalant babus.

In what could bring succour to thousands of people from the transgender community across the country, Kritika's relentless effort has ensured that the the Centre may soon modify the rules by dropping the mandatory sex reassignment surgery (SRS) certificate for trans people when applying for a name change notification under the Gazette of India. The move is significant because, till now, the certificate was a mandatory requirement, despite the provisions laid down by the NALSA judgement, which said that asking for a SRS certificate is "illegal and immoral".

The trouble for Kritika started two years ago when she wanted to change her name. But, when she went to the Department of Publications, she was asked to furnish a list of documents, including "medical/legal" documents proving her sexual identity.

She found out that while the checklist said that a medical document is required, the proforma mandated a SRS certificate. Despite her pleas, Kritika says that her documents were flung away. Her efforts to tell them about the NALSA judgement fell on deaf ears.

Kritika then approached the court and filed a plea at the Delhi High Court; and the Lawyer's Collective was representing her pro bono. A similar case, represented by advocate Rohit Kaliyar, filed a few days earlier, was eventually clubbed together. But when she was granted dates after a few months, Kritika decided that enough was enough. She wanted to study further, and because of the legal tangle, she lost out on two years.

When DNA spoke to her in October 2016, for a story on the issue, Kritika's helplessness was palpable. "At that time, I had no documents on me, and I could not travel anywhere as I required a legal document. I wanted to study, and I took up work just to fund my surgeries. My employers understood my problem and changed my gender in the office records," she says. Kritika is currently undergoing hormone therapy.

Kritika first approached the Union ministry of Social Justice and Empower, who despite being empathetic to her problem, said that they will forward her request to the urban development ministry, that governs the department of publications. The urban development ministry, on its part, forwarded the request to the law ministry.

She then followed up these visits by obtaining legal documents under her new identity. The first document she managed to make was an Aadhaar card. For this she appealed to an MP to giver her a recommendation, and then managed to get the SDM of the Saket District Court to issue her an affidavit. With the Aadhar card done, she got a PAN card made.

"Once the documents were ready, I was more confident. If one can make an Aadhaar card under the gender identity one ascribes to so easily, it shows how easy the process actually is. Many transsexual and transgender people resort to any means to get hold of a document, but I wanted to change the provisions for the whole community," she says.

On Saturday, after running from one officer to another inside the ministries for months, Kritika's name was finally changed, and was published in the Gazette of India. The urban development ministry informed her that if is now working alongside the law ministry to change the provisions to help the entire community.

Kritika says that she raised certain loopholes in the system, leaving the officials red-faced. "One of the first provisions in the proforma was that only after an SRS certificate can one apply for a gender change. For them, gender and sex seems to be an interchangeable concept, which is not correct. The proforma also did not take into account the changes mandated by the NALSA judgement, and are waiting for The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, which is yet to become a law," she explains.

"Lastly, when the department of publications notifies anything, it clearly states that it does not take any legal responsibility of what was being published. I asked that, if they are not willing to do that, why were they then coming in the way of my publication," she said.

The changes are finally made for her as an individual case. Yet, when doing so, the urban development ministry asked her to sign an undertaking stating that she belongs to the transsexual community. "I refused to do so. Why do I need to belong to any community to apply for something as basic as this? I don't want any tags to precede my identity," she says.

Kritika's victory, significant as it is, is still a lone case, as Tripti Tandon from the Lawyer's Collective, who is fighting her case, reminds us. "The fundamental problem still needs to be addressed; a whole community is suffering because the Centre is not willing to adhere to a directive of the apex court of the country," said Tandon.

Her concerns are echoed to what union minister of social justice and empowerment, Thawar Chand Gehlot, has to say about this development. "There is a bill in this regard and when it comes back from the standing committee, all these concerns will be addressed. Kritika's case was robust, and we will help anyone who has the required documents," Gehlot told DNA.

RAJYA SABHA MP WEIGHS IN

• "Sex reassignment surgery is also an expensive process, and as per the NALSA judgement, the government must bear the cost of the surgery," Tiruchi Siva, Rajya Sabha MP, said.
   
• Barring a few regions, the govt rarely comes forward to help the community. The govt did not consult me when they drafted their bill, which was a watered down version of my bill," Siva said.

* - name changed on request