Author: SUKASHNI P, II year of LL.B. from GOVERNMENT LAW COLLEGE, COIMBATORE
Dwarka, was very happy and enthusiastic, received her father, Prof. Krish, with a glittering smile in her face, the reason for her happiness is that she got selected in most reputed school of her locality to purse her higher secondary, the family members felt very pride and happy because the institution had produced lot of legends, now her daughter too got an opportunity to study in the institution. Dwarka got the admission form to fill her details, her father instructed her to go through the form once, then proceed, obeying the words of her dad she started to go through the application, after some lines in the column of Gender she caught the new category called OTHERS, she was surprised what is mean by others, she interrogated with her fatherregarding the category called other, her father explained that those are the people who biologically different from heterogenous gender people. Dwarka was become curious and started to research about the people. After reading some articles she came to know about the THIRD GENDER people existence and their pathway of living. Dwarka came to her father in the evening, asked her father to answer her question, her father was ready to answer, Dwarka started stating her father to imagine the situation by replacing him in that situation and answer.
Dwarka started to narrate the situation to her father,“you’re happy with your family, studying in school and having en-number of friends in the school, moreover you are the best boy in your neighborhood who excel in studies, games and in discipline. One day suddenly your parents threw out of the home, beating you constantly, asking you go anywhere don’t come here at all, the neighbors started to shut their doors and friends moving out from you, everyone just watching and treating you like a monster or some alien. You have neither the financial assistance noreven a penny, no relatives, friends or even anyone is ready to hear you, you don’t know where to go and how to survive, but the most devasting thing is you don’t know what happening to you and why your parents and friends behave like such”, dad in this scenario what you will do dad and how you will survive?The situation was really shaking Prof. Krish! suddenly he replied, this imaginary situation is cruel in nature how like such could happen to anyone? Dwarka replied in the calm tone, yes dad this situation is really cruel in nature, we can’t even imagine ourselves in this situation, but dad this is reality for lot of our so called “OTHERS” category people, they suffer lot and even more dad. Prof. Krish was stunned by Dwarka words because the words of her is true, being in the society we never thought of these people, never had an interest to know about these people, we just always came over about these people existence only during filing any form or in the negative perspective, as we people always tame them in the negative dominion, forgot them even as the normal Human being like us.
As the above anecdote is the reality, we the people in this independent world still chain the lot of people and exclude them not even considering them as the living creature, those too have feeling, pain and especially have the same birth right that what we all enjoy. This is time to raise the SOCIAL WELL BEING OF THE OTHERS to promote the humanity and uphold the enshrined rights of them to enjoy. The intent of this article to enlighten and aware ourselves to niche for the welfare of the Sexual minorities, not as exclusion, but to the inclusion of the society.
As often the sexual minorities are been treated as an invisible one in the society because we people are not intending to recognize and remember them, that they possess the rights and equality as we enjoy. In this article the focus is main on the social wellbeing, the social well being place a vital role in every human being to lead a happy, healthy and dignified life in the society.
The extreme social exclusion, discrimination, stigma and atrocities diminish self-esteem and sense of social responsibility2. The landmark judgment of Supreme Court in,Olga Tellis case recognizes that,” Right to live hood is the integral part of Right to life Article 21” of the constitution, without the existence of right to live hood the right to life shall not be exist3, but here in the scenario the sexual minorities are often exclude from the majorities, they totally dealt to think that they are different from the majority one, especially this exclusion leads them to deprivation of the Fundamental rights under the Part III of the Constitution and Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The social exclusion, illiteracy, no job opportunity and poor implementation of government policies pushes them in the vitiated situation, leads them to divert and finally makes them to get into trouble9.
The non-acceptance of the majority people and social exclusion makes them to face difficulties in obtaining the basic necessities to live i.e., food, shelter, clothes, education and job. The darkness of the exclusion and discrimination chase them everywhere, in educational institution, workplace, temples, public places and in their own home, this agony create chaos, leads them to mental depression leads them to commit suicide. The research says, High level of discrimination may underline the observations of greater morbidity risk among sexual minorities4.
The non-attainment of basic necessities and discrimination makes them to get involved in the sex work, there they even face exploitation, trafficking and slavery, even treated as the bonded sexual worker, because abuser is aware about the circumstances of their exclusion in the society and easily struck into the trap8. Most of the sexual minorities undergo sex work only to attain the daily wages and daily necessities, the vulnerability of them is non-explainable. Sex work by the sexual minorities invites exploitation by both, clients and police. There has been a landmark judgment by Delhi high court in Naz Foundation5, upheld their rights, the court recognized the anachronism sociated with Section 377 IPC and interpreted it to exclude sexual acts between consenting adults, thus decriminalizing homosexuality. This judgment may be regraded as one of the stepping stone to uphold the rights of sexual minorities.
In sometimes the Media also tends to play the negative role in projecting the sexual minorities as violent and criminal in nature. The Media may also focus on the pain and agony undergo by the sexual minorities in order for their upliftment.
This structural stigma leads to increase in the death rate of sexual minorities, HHS Public access6 conducted the structural analysis, the objective of the analysis to assess the impact of structural stigma within a given community on accelerating the time to death by 2008 for sexual minority populations. To utilized Cox proportional hazard models were adopted, the five test procedure. The findings of the report says that structural stigma would be the consequences associated with the morality among sexual minorities. The analyzation is the proof, the discrimination and stigmatization are the worst mental pressure which abet the people to commit suicide.
In the bottom line the discrimination of these people is equal to creating an atmosphere for them to end their life. As the human being with the humanity let’s stops the chain for the atmosphere for suiciderather promote the humanity to the sexual minorities and accept them in the society for their social well being to the attainment of the rights. The court also ruled that the Indian Constitution mandates the recognition of a third gender on official documents, and that Article 15 bans discrimination based on gender identity7. The violation of basic human rights of this community and need the proper implementation of the provision enacted, in need for their protection and equal opportunities like any other law abiding the citizen1.
As per the law of land the discrimination shall be stopped on the sexual minorities and envisage soon to recognize and merge them to the society by eradicating them from the list of marginalization.
END NOTES
1. Report of PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties). Human PUCL-K fact-nding report about Bangalore 2001. Available rights violations against sexuality minorities in India.
2. Khan SI, Hussain MI, Parveen S, Bhuiyan MI, Gourab G, Sarker GF, et al. Living on the extreme margin: social exclusion of the transgender population (hijra) in Bangladesh.
3. Olga Tellis Vs. Bombay Municipal Corporation 1985 SCC (3) 545
4. Mays VM, Cochran SD. Mental health correlates of perceived.
5. Naz Foundation Vs. NCT Delhi 2009 160 Delhi Times 277
6. HHS Public Access Public Document
7. LGBTQ+ Rights in India Wikipedia.
discrimination among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults in the
United States. Am J Public Health 2001; 91 : 1869-76.
8. "Global Human Rights Defence". Ghrd.org. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
9. "7 Indian LGBT icons you need to know about, from Lilly Singh to Dutee Chand". South China Morning Post. 6 June 2022. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
J Health Popul Nutr 2009; 27 : 441-5