About 40 aravanis who have registered for the surgery at the Vellore Government General Hospital have complained against the doctors to the district collector.
CHENNAI: Almost seven months after the Tamil Nadu government's revolutionary order offering free penile amputations for aravanis (as they are referred to here), members of the community are fuming as doctors refuse to wield the scalpel, citing medical ethics.
The government order was aimed at preventing unsafe castrations that a large number of aravanis resort to for lack of an alternative but that can cause infections and, in some cases, even death.
In Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, home to more than 60,000 registered aravanis, a large number of cross-dressers go to 'dayammas' (designated elderly eunuchs) for crude forms of castration. Quacks also make a killing, doing penile amputation on poor and confused cross-dressers for Rs 10,000.
The order gained popularity among aravanis during the annual Koovagam festival on May 1 and 2 when tens of thousands of them from across the country congregated in Koovagam village of Tamil Nadu and marry Lord Aravan symbolically.
"We welcomed it as a revolutionary step by the government. But when we approached the government hospitals, doctors either said they were not aware of it or just refused to do the surgery," says Mohini, a transvestite from Tambaram in suburban Chennai.
About 40 aravanis who have registered for the surgery at the Vellore Government General Hospital have complained against the doctors to the district collector.
"Yes, there is a problem with doctors refusing to do the surgery. We will set things right in a few days," says district collector Dharmendra Prathap Yadav.
Doctors, however, say they cannot be forced to do the surgery. "It is not a life-saving surgery. A surgeon has the right to refuse to do it. There are sensitivities involved," says Dr A Zameer Pasha, ex-president of Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu branch.
Moreover, doctors say, many of the government hospitals lack expertise and facilities for the surgery which involves plastic surgeons, urologists and vascular surgeons.
“It is not a simple surgery. If something goes wrong, we will be charged with medical negligence," says a surgeon at the Government General Hospital, Chennai. Moreover, the government has not put in place pre- and post-operative counselling, which is considered vital in such cases.
“As a policy, we don't encourage penile amputations," says Lakshmi Bai, director of Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative.
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