Transwoman refused job by Air India wants mercy killing: When will prejudice die in India?
Shanavi Ponnusamy moved court against Air India in November last year.
A transwoman from Tamil Nadu has written to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking mercy killing, after Air India allegedly denied her a job as a cabin crew member.
The case of Shanavi Ponnusamy highlights once again how lakhs of people in India continue to be denied the most basic human right – the right to dignity – because society can’t get over its petty prejudices, that seep into the working of institutions.
Ponnusamy was born a male. According to her letter to the President, after getting an engineering degree in 2010, she worked with Air India customer support executive (International) in Sutherland Global Services for almost two years. She then underwent a sex change surgery and published the change in name and gender in the Gazette of Tamil Nadu.
In November 2017, she moved the Supreme Court alleging gender discrimination by the airline, claiming she had been denied a cabin crew job despite clearing the written examination.
Her letter to the President reads: “Now from past two years, 4 times I got a call letter for Air India cabin crew – female post but my name was not in final list. Later i came to know that Air india reserved seats only for female where I cant make cutoff then after long struggle to contact Ministry of civil aviation and Air india replied that as per their recruitment policy they dont have category for 'Transwomen'”.
The Supreme Court issued notices to Air India and the ministry of civil aviation, and asked them to reply in a month. The authorities are yet to reply, she claims. “So our Supreme court of india takes step on it and asked Air india and Ministry of Civil aviation to respond with in 4 weeks on 6 th nov'17. But till the date there is no response from them and am really facing a survival issue because of denying my basic rights to live in this country,” Ponnusamy’s letter says.
In her SC petition, Ponnusamy had also claimed that she was “forced” to take the exam as a student of the “female” category.
Her petition also asked the court to create a “third category” for jobs. According to the petition, when she did not get the job even after faring well in the test, the civil aviation ministry allegedly said “there was no category to include her”.
This flies in the face of a landmark Supreme Court ruling of 2014, which recognised transgender people as a third gender. It had also ordered the government to provide transgender people with quotas in jobs and education in line with those for other minorities.
Almost four years on, not much has changed.
Let us get this clear – an entire community is stigmatised, forced to live on the margins, struggle for acceptance and self-expression, to lead their lives under their identities of choice, because people are narrow-minded.
A transgender person is perfectly capable of getting an education, discharging the duties of any job whatsoever, but can’t, because people are narrow-minded.
They can’t live with their families, marry the person they want, have sex with the person they want, because people are narrow-minded.
Nothing but unreasonable, unjustifiable prejudice is forcing lakhs of people into living away from the homes they were born into, pushed into begging or sex work to earn a living.
Ponnusamy’s is not an isolated case. In November 2017, the chief minister of Maharashtra had to intervene for a woman police constable to get leave for a sex change surgery, and then keep her job as a man.
Before that, eight of the 21 transgenders hired by the Kochi Metro among much fanfare quit within a month because nobody was willing to rent out houses to them.
In December 2016, Manobi Bandyopadhyay, who became the first transgender to be appointed the principal of a college, had to resign from her post at Krishnanagar Women’s College in West Bengal’s Nadia, because of animosity and harassment by colleagues and students.
These were all well-publicised cases, but all the media scrutiny and conversation could not guarantee these people their basic rights.
Where societal practices are discriminatory, the state needs to step up. Vulnerable groups need proactive measures from the government to ensure they can enjoy the rights granted to every Indian citizen. Unfortunately, The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, is a mass of problems.
While it makes no provision for reservation in jobs and education to the community, it has a deeply humiliating clause where a “screening committee” will determine who is a transgender and accordingly issue identity cards.
It is unconscionable that in 2018, people are being denied the rights to live, love and earn a livelihood because the society is uncomfortable in shedding old prejudices.
However, the government and the administration should not be hampered by the same limitations. Air India is a government-run institution.
Legal enablers for the community to earn a livelihood with dignity can go a long way in its larger battle for equality.