Says it is not fair to keep transgender inmates in isolation because of their status.
Transgenders or eunuchs might have won the right to vote, but the discrimination they face is far from over, as the recent debarring of a transgender activist by a prestigious city gymkhana testifies.
Their plight is worse in jails where they end up becoming the outcasts among outcasts. On Monday, the Bombay high court stepped in on their behalf and called for a review of the treatment meted out to such individuals in the state prisons. The court was hearing the bail plea of an HIV-positive transgender lodged in the Nashik jail.
While denying him bail, a division bench of justices Ranjana Desai and VK Tahilramani transferred William alias Hema (name changed to protect identity) to Thane prison, which has a separate cell for transgenders.
William informed the court that he has been cast off by jail mates as he is a eunuch. “I am suffering depression because I feel isolated, there is nobody to take care of me or to talk to in prison,” William said. His legal aid Anjali Waghmare also told the court that, on March 12, William had fainted in his cell and no one tended to him for a long time. He was later admitted to a civil hospital, from where he was discharged on March 18.
When the court asked the state lawyer if all HIV positive prisoners are kept in isolation, additional public prosecutor Rajesh More replied that since William cannot be kept with either male or female prisoners, he was lodged separately.
To which, justice Desai said: “It appears you are keeping him separately not because of HIV, but because of his status.” More told the court that if William is kept with other prisoners, there is a chance of him indulging in unnatural sex. The court observed that, in any case, many prisoners are indulging in unnatural sex.
The court also asked amicus curie, advocate Maharukh Adenwala, to suggest guidelines for such prisoners.
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