Times
of India: Chennai: Saturday, 16 August 2014.
Has Tamil
Nadu been successful in its battle against HIV/AIDS? Yes and no.
The state
recorded a marked decline in incidence of HIV infection and deaths from AIDS
between 2009 and 2013 among both men and women. However, in what is both a
pointer to the vulnerability of the third gender and an indictment of a failure
in social inclusiveness, the mortality rate of HIV-positive transgenders in the
state increased by more than 1,600% over the same period.
AIDS can
be brought under control by 2030 — UNAIDS
Tamil Nadu
State Aids Control Society (TNSACS) statistics, sourced by TOI through an RTI
petition, show that 1,537 men and 814 women died of HIV/AIDS-related causes in
2009. Effective intervention by the state led to a decline in the numbers to
1,323 male and 595 female HIV/AIDS deaths in 2013, a fall of 18.42%.
Tamil Nadu one
of the four worst HIV/AIDS affected states along with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
and Maharashtra recorded only seven transgender deaths in 2009. The number
climbed exponentially to 113 in 2013.
If this does
not appear to be strikingly high number, consider that the latest census
statistics put the number of transgenders in the country at 4.9 lakh out of a
total population in excess of 120 crore. That is 0.04% of the general
population. By comparison, the HIV/AIDS mortality rate for transgenders by
population in Tamil Nadu is 5.56%.
Also,
activists say, the actual numbers could be far higher because transgender
deaths are hugely underreported.
"Social
stigma prevents the reporting of transgender deaths," says A J Hariharan,
founder of NGO Indian Community Welfare Organisation, which works for the
welfare of the sex workers and transgenders. According to the TNSACS data, the
number of HIV-positive cases in the state dropped from 25,572 in 2009 to 17,055
in 2013, with the number of HIV-infected males decreasing from 14,835 to 9,868
and women from 10,665 to 7,127 over the same period.
The figures
raise several disconcerting questions. Have Tamil Nadu's highly acclaimed
efforts to stem the spread of the disease not been an unqualified success? Is
social inclusiveness a myth when it comes to transgenders despite several
government initiatives to bring the community into the mainstream?
Tamil Nadu
was the first state to create a special welfare board for transgenders and
provide them land, pension and separate ration cards. The Election Commission
in 2009 created a separate entry for transgenders on voter lists. But
transgenders say the welfare board has ceased to function.
"It was
after Tamil Nadu that other states like Maharashtra set up welfare board for
transgenders. But unfortunately the board for all purposes does not
exist," says R Jeeva, founder of NGO Transgender Rights Association and a
former member of the welfare board.
Other
officials say lack of awareness is probably the main cause for the rise in
deaths of transgenders. "The increase in deaths of HIV-positive
transgenders is a concern. It is most likely linked to unsafe sex," said
Dr Vijaya Raman, deputy director of Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative (TAI).
But
transgenders say they have little choice in the matter. Latha S, a 30-year-old
transgender says she's a prostitute by compulsion and not by choice. While that
may be true of most women and men who sell sex for money, individuals of the
third gender stigmatised, ridiculed and shunned have far fewer chances of
opting out of the profession than others.
Latha says
she did not have an education and no one would give her a job. "I have
been in the profession ever since I discovered I was a transgender and joined
the community," she says. "Once I left home there was no one to
educate me or help me get employed."
Her job,
Latha says, involves violence from drunks and rowdies. "Customers often do
not pay and policemen harass us and force us to pay a large chunk of what we
earn for protection," she says.
"I hate
being a prostitute but I don't know what else to do," she says. What is
worst, she says, is the vulnerability that she and other transgenders face and
the constant fear it engenders.
Transgenders
usually leave home when they are around 16 years old, says A J Hariharan, the
founder secretary of Indian Community Welfare Organisation (ICWO), an NGO that
works for the welfare of the homeless, sex workers and transgenders. "They
join other transgenders and are pushed into begging and prostitution," he
says. "Lack of basic education means they are unable to get jobs and the
stigma attached to them means even manual labour is not an option."
Hariharan
says companies could, as part of their corporate social responsibility
programmes, look to help transgenders. "That would be empowering for
members of the community because it would involve acceptance of the fact that
transgenders are part of society and bring them into the mainstream, apart from
giving them a livelihood," he says.
But the
discrimination that transgenders face leaves them with little optimism that
they could win acceptance and integrate with society. "Social acceptance?
I don't know if that is possible," says transgender Raji Sekar, 25.
"We can't even take a house on rent because few landlords would want
transgenders as tenants."
"I did
not wish to be transgender," she says. "I was born this way and that
is what people should realise for society to accept us," she says.
Her companion
Ambika M, has bruises on her face and hands. She says a group of men beat her
up a few days ago. "We face intolerance all the time, so nobody cares
about our safety," she says. "Not a day goes by without a transgender
being beaten up by customers or drunkards."
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