This story is a chain of ironies. A transgender woman, the common word for which in India and Pakistan is hijra, kinnar in Hindi/Urdu and khusra in Punjabi, was raped in June of this year. Where’s the irony, you’d ask? This is commonplace in the sexually-oppressed and degenrated society of South Asia. Allow me to unveil a litany of irony and horror hereafter.
This woman, let’s call her Naghma, left her hometown of Mumbai on June 5 with her friends, fellow transgender women, with a prayer on her lips for a pilgrimage to the dargah of the renowned Sufi Saint Salim Chishti of Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan. She must have come to Khwaja Gharib Nawaz either to make a wish or for thanksgiving. But see what was in store for her: before she could enter the dargah, she was cornered by the local police, taken into custody and later, raped. Her crime was her refusal to pay a bribe the constable demanded from her autorickshaw driver. Irony after irony followed. The cops who violated her had names inspired by the Sacred Feminine revered by the Hindus. Constable Bhawani Singh and Constable Laxmi Narayan humiliated the sacred womanhood their names stood for. This crime happened in Rajasthan, a state with a female chief minister, Vasundhara Raje. And Raje is from the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), whose election manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections had women’s safety and dignity in its list of priorities. Hoardings with ‘Bohat hua nari pe waar, abki baar Modi sarkar’ (women have been attacked enough, it’s time for Modi’s government) stared down at us on main traffic arteries of India’s politically-charged election season this spring.
[quote]Their corpse is dragged, beaten and cursed[/quote]
The horror of this custodial rape was first reported by the local press of Rajasthan. Since then, the issue is slowly gaining traction in rallies, press conferences and reportage.
When I spoke with Naghma, her voice was feeble and sounded injured even three months after the incident. “Police wale mujhse tameez se baat nahin karte (the cops speak rudely with me)”, she told me putting up a strong front despite the deep and draining gashes on her self respect.
Naghma had refused to pay the bribe and her autorickshaw driver had requested the cop to let him off. The matter settled for a moment but then the pathology of deriding the transgender community kicked up the dust again. Bhawani Singh, along with some hangers-on, mocked at Naghma and her friend Zoya for their physical attributes. Her friends reacted to this and roughed up the cop. Naghma, refusing to take the cops’ behaviour thought reporting a constable to his boss in the Dargah Police Station would fix things. Little did she realise that she was stepping into a trapdoor which led her to the underbelly of the police system of India. When she raised her voice against Bhawani Singh before his boss, she was slapped with charges of roughing up a cop under Section 353 of CrPC and taken into custody. While her friends were beaten up in the police station, she saw horror of the worst possible variety later that night.
Transgenders at a sufi shrine
“Teen police walon ne band kamre mein mujhe apni mardangi dikhai, jahan koi CCTV camera nahin tha. Kyunki beech sarhak to yeh log aisi harkat nahin kar sakte the. Jo mere sath kiya, main zindagi bhar nahin bhool sakti (three cops exhibited their virility to me behind closed doors, where no CCTV cameras were installed. They couldn’t have done this out in the open. I can’t forget for life what they did to me),” When Zoya saw them raping her, she came to her rescue, and was also brutalised. “Woh aise maar rahe the humein jaise woh bhagwan hon aur saza dene ka haq sirf unhein hai (they were brutalising us thinking they were God and only they reserved the right to mete out punishment)”.
Naghma and her friends have since been attending court dates. She was also robbed off Rs 40,000 by Bhawani Singh’s boss, who promised her bail in return. However, he has been suspended since the case came to light. Naghma has twice sought an appointment from CM Raje but hasn’t been entertained yet. The case was transferred to Rajasthan police headquarters in the capital city of Jaipur. That too doesn’t seem to be helping Naghma. Tarique Alam, the superintendent of police investigating the case, according to Naghma and Zoya, blew cigarette smoke on their faces and then cheekily apologised.
Transgenders in India have little recourse to the law
Rajathan’s Director General of Police, Omendra Bhardwaj was taken unawares when I reported Tarique Alam’s inexorable behaviour to him. However, he assured me the investigation should be completed soon.
Trouble is, this is not a case of sexual violence alone. It is a case of pathological behaviour dictated by our insenstive socio-cultural thoughts and practices that consider the transgender community sub-human. India and Pakistan are brimming with folklore of hijras/khusras as the butt of jokes, living off alms and donations given condescendingly by “normal” people who have zero contribution in being born with the physical attributes that they are. Often they are not even afforded a decent and respectful funeral. Their corpse is dragged out from the backdoor of the building, beaten with shoes and slippers and cursed, so that in their next birth they are not born with ‘abnormal’ genitals and hormones again.
[quote]A little before this incident, she had signed a small-budget movie[/quote]
But Naghma doesn’t consider herself abnormal. She is a proud, law-abiding and hard-working person who claims to never even being fined in her life and thought that the police was for people’s safety. Aged 25, this Mumbai girl – yes, girl because she feels like one – studied up to class 12, speaks passable English, and is a professional dancer and actor. A little before this incident, she had signed a small-budget movie, for which she had even taken a signing amount of Rs 1 lakh. But after this unfortunate incident, the movie has been shelved. She has a non-earning mother and a student sister to support. “Meri behen barvi class mein parhti hai aur main usko aur parhaoongi (my sister studies in Class 12 and I will educate her further)”, says Naghma whose body alone hasn’t suffered. Her self-esteem and professional standing have also taken a severe beating. She has several “offers” to withdraw the case, but this is a fight for dignity and principles for her now. Rs 15 lakh is a huge amount for her, but her lost pride is priceless. She won’t withdraw the case for any allurement.
