Human Rights International

India – promoting transgender rights

Transgender people in India are known as Hijras, Trtiyaparkriti, Napumsaka, Aravanis, Jogtas or Kothis, among other terms.The Indian public treats them in a variety of ways, ranging from great reverence to strict exclusion. Transgender people used to be revered as good luck charms and fertility symbols, but today they are mostly
forced to exist on the fringes of Indian society. The recent legal recognition of the “third sex” has not led to any significant changes.Discrimination and prejudice against trans people can be countered through information and education. This is what the “Transgender Rights” course at the acclaimed law faculty of Bangalore University aims to do. The curriculum for the course was designed by the FriedrichNaumann Foundation  for Freedom in collaboration with the Centre for Law and Policy Research
(CLPR). In addition, a law clinic was set up that informs transgender people of their rights. “I have always been interested in minority rights,” says Tarini Maheshwari, a student at the National Law School of India in Bangalore. “This course gave me the opportunity to investigate the problems of the transgender community, which is particularly marginalised in India. These legal questions fall outside of the compulsory curriculum for law students in any other part of the world.”