Bengaluru: For the first time, transgenders have been recognised as the third gender, post the Supreme Court order, in any government document. The National Crimes Records Bureau, which released its annual report recently, has given a separate section, pertaining to the ‘accidental deaths and suicides’ of transgenders. But city activists believe that the statistics are wrong and the numbers could be much higher than what has been show in these records.
The report states that 106 transgenders died in accidents, while 16 others committed suicide throughout the country in 2014. In Karnataka, two transgenders lost their lives to accidents, while two others committed suicide.
Akkai, founder of Ondede and a voice of the transgender community, disagreed with the statistics, saying, “So many transgenders have committed suicide in the state because of rejection by society.” The report states that most of the transgenders who committed suicide are in the age group of 18-30.
“It is good that transgenders have been recognised as the third gender in the NCRB records, but there are many other things that the Supreme Court spoke about. Nobody is bothered about including the recommendations in the state policy. The court had also spoke about education, awareness and employment opportunities for the community,” Akkai said.
Karnataka was the first state to constitute an 11-member sub-committee to frame a policy for the transgenders, in line with the Supreme Court order of April 2014. The draft policy prepared by the committee did not receive any response from government departments. It recommended steps to give the transgender community opportunities for proper employment, education or entrepreneurship.
The NCRB record states that Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of transgenders killed in road accidents at 41, followed by Jharkhand at 20 and Maharashtra at 13. As far as suicides are concerned, Uttar Pradesh led the list with six, followed by Tamil Nadu at four, Maharashtra three and Andhra Pradesh one.
