Now Men can Access Indian Women’s Sex-Segregated Spaces

The lives of many underprivileged young girls end prematurely due to male violence. What is worse, it happens inside a space that is meant to protect them. State-sanctioned shelters are supposed to be a safe haven for the disadvantaged, instead they are becoming an epicentre for pedophilic, sexual violence. There isn’t enough outrage over this.  The entire country, it seems, prefers to lobby for men’s access to women-only spaces appertaining to these men’s ‘feelings’.

In a  survey conducted by a city-based NGO, The Nudge Foundation, of the nearly 350 million people below the poverty line, about 70 million were estimated to be “ultra-poor.” An economic class of people who survive on less than ₹100 a day ($1 is ~₹75). These families live in tiny nooks where the governmental schemes – apparently designed for the welfare of these very people – rarely reach. Poverty and illiteracy are burdens they pass on to their plenteous progeny. The female population is undoubtedly the worst affected in any society. But a developing country riddled with abject   poverty, illiteracy, despicable healthcare, and a  fascist  government makes for a particularly dangerous society for women. Add to this the evils of the  caste system, religious  extremism, and  racial prejudices.

The entire country, it seems, prefers to lobby for men’s access to women-only spaces appertaining to these men’s ‘feelings’.

The shocking  news about 57 minor girls who tested positive for COVID-19 at Pratapgarh children’s shelter in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) – some of whom were pregnant – created a bit of a stir, but the story soon died without scrutiny. At the 67 centres run by the district, 3,963 inhabitants were crammed into living space designed for a maximum capacity of 3,675. Among them, 257 women and girls who were victims of sexual crimes,  20 of whom were pregnant. This dire situation ought to serve as a warning to authorities and highlight the need for sex-segregated safe spaces, especially as we are in the throngs of a country-wide ‘gender identity’ takeover. While I  am fully aware that the abusers in the above cases have been men who are well outside the fringes of LGBT, it is pertinent to understand the need for a ‘male/penis-free’ space, either way.

Despite several grievances that face women in my country, the Indian policymakers appear to have prioritised issues concerning ‘gender identity’. As I have  pointed out before, most of these changes have happened discreetly with no consultation among concerned parties, or have come about via unilateral unquestioning acceptance within the institutions. The legal, corporate and media establishments are complicit in instituting changes in law using backdoor lobbying that deliberately eludes a lay woman. These changes, while claiming to cater to the welfare of a marginalised group, not only fail to support said group, they go against the hard-earned progress women have made over decades.

Under the Transgender Rules, an application to self declare a ‘gender’ is to be made to the District Magistrate. It also allows parents to make an application  “on behalf of their child.”

Much of the safeguarding measures of the LGBT community in India is hyper focused on solely the T. It wasn’t until 2018 that Section 377 was overturned and homosexuality decriminalised. A judgement  passed by the Supreme Court of India was just the first leg of the long-drawn battle for social legitimacy by the community. Issues such as same sex marriage, inheritance of property, and civil rights are  yet to receive legal sanction. However, the rights of transgender persons are governed by an exclusive Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020. Under the Rules, an application to self declare a ‘gender’ is to be made to the District Magistrate. It also allows parents to make an application  “on behalf of their child.”

A much-criticised previous draft of regulations required transgender persons to go through a medical examination for declaring their desired sex, while offering free ‘sex-reassignment surgeries’ in all government hospitals. This requirement to go through a medical exam was omitted in the final Rules, which state that subject to the correctness of the applicant’s particulars the District Magistrate will “get the application processed based on the affidavit submitted declaring the gender identity of any person, without any medical or physical examination, and thereafter, issue an identification number to the applicant, which may be quoted as proof of application.” With this simple omission, India has successfully erased a women’s right to sex-segregated spaces, forever.

Landscape of Sexual Violence Inside Women-Only Shelters

The condition of the Kanpur shelter, previously mentioned, is hardly an isolated case.  The over capacity and sexual violence in state-sanctioned shelters is a known tragedy. With despicable conditions, poor sanitation and unhygienic surroundings; Indian women and girls will now have to include “gender identity” into the mix, which seems unusually cruel. The majority these women’s cases never see the light of day- given that the justice system often ends up being complicit, but here are some known cases that have been documented in recent years:

May 2018 –  Muzaffarpur, Bihar

So far, it has been confirmed that 34 girls between the ages of seven and 17 were raped. On June 14, 2018, Bihar’s Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) sealed the Muzaffarpur shelter home and rescued 46 minor girls. Bihar Governor Satyapal Malik suspended six Assistant Directors of the State Welfare Department for dereliction of duty and for the delay in taking action after a social audit report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences on August 5, 2018.

August 2018 –  Deoria, Uttar Pradesh

A 10-year-old escaped from a shelter and reached a women’s police station to complain about conditions inside. The supervisor of the shelter home, Girija Tripathi, her husband Mohan Tripathi and superintendent Kanchalata, were arrested, while the District Magistrate Sujit Kumar was transferred for negligence. The escaped girl had been ill-treated at the shelter home for the past three years and made to work as a “servant.” Some of the older inmates, aged 15 to 18, were being sexually exploited. According to her, the inhabitants would be picked up at night and dropped at the shelter home the following morning. Despite warnings and a cancelled registration, this shelter was running illegally, and was a front for many sexually abusive activities.

August 2018 –  Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh

Women were reported missing from two shelter homes in Pratapgarh. Jagrati Shelter Home, run by the former district chief of the women’s front of the Bharatiya Janata Party was inspected. The district magistrate found that 15 women were registered but only one woman was present there. The caretaker of this home, Neha Praveen, said they were not getting any funding and the shelter was being run with their personal expenses.  Whether or not the whereabouts of the missing women was ever established has never been reported.

May 2017 –  Delhi

At least seven inhabitants were forced to stay in the Nirmal Chaya shelter home and undergo abortion. They were also beaten when they resisted. “I was pregnant but was forced to undergo an abortion. They (staff) promised me that I will be allowed to go to my friend but I am still being forced to stay here. I request that either I be allowed to go to my friend or allowed to move to another home,” one of the inmate’s letters read. They faced repeated beatings and if they dared to make the abuse known to anyone outside, and were taken to the medical room and physically abused. Some of the inhabitants also alleged the forceful ingestion of chemicals to make them appear older than their actual age.

Existing (Ineffective) Policies for Safeguarding Women and Girls

Taking into account the sexual exploitation and pitiable living conditions of these women, I was wondering about the finances of these shelters.  What was set aside for buildings, management and general upkeep? There are pages and pages of documentation that essentially confirm an exorbitant amount of funding assigned per state for the schemes to protect women.

The Ministry of WCD  set aside over 43 million rupees (43,060,078 rupees to be exact) as the first installment to the state of Uttar Pradesh as grants-in-aid to implement shelters. There is no record of where this money has been spent. It is safe to suspect that it didn’t go towards safeguarding women and girls.

Poverty, lack of education and sensitisation to their plight prevent a vast majority of women from making use of safe facilities to begin with.

Shelter homes in India are run under the  Swadhar Greh Scheme, set up by the Department of Social Welfare and the WCD. Some other observations based on the information furnished in the government portal is that there are no shelters in the entire state of Meghalaya in the north-east, and while the funding has been set aside to cater to every district within the state, many states have no shelters even in their major cities.

The Swadhar Greh Scheme claims to provide shelter and rehabilitation to:

• women deserted and without any social and economic support;
• women survivors of natural disasters rendered homeless;
• women prisoners released from jail and without family, social and economic support;
• women victims of domestic violence, family tension or discord;
• trafficked women/girls rescued from brothels or places of exploitation; and
• women affected by HIV/AIDS with no social or economic support.

Poverty, lack of education and sensitisation to their plight prevent a vast majority of women from making use of such facilities to begin with. And with that, to subject these women to further abuse must be regarded with profound denigration.

Shaken by cases of sexual violence, former Union Minister of WCD Menaka Gandhi demanded the verification of all homes in the states. She even suggested using part of the ‘Nirbhaya Fund’– a 100-billion-rupee corpus announced by the federal government in its 2013 Union Budget to help protect dignity and ensure safety of women- in response to the 2012 gangrape in Delhi.  A Parliamentary committee  concluded in March 2020, that only 35 percent of the Nirbhaya Fund had been utilised across ministries. Of the roughly 74 billion rupees allocated, the ministries and departments had spent only around  26.4 billion rupees on 32 different schemes.

Prioritising T

Here are some examples of trans rights activists’ encroachment upon female-only spaces—a move I thought we in India had at least five years to fight. I am terrified to observe how wrong I was:

Women only reserved positions:

– On January 5, 2021, the Bombay High Court  allowed a trans-identified male to contest village panchayat (town council) polls as ‘female’ in a ward reserved for women, saying that such persons have the right to a “self perceived gender identity.”

– On March 15th, the Kerala High Court  allowed a trans-identified male to join NCC (National Cadet Corps) and called for changes in enrolment criteria. The single bench of Justice Anu Sivaraman (a woman) said, “in view of the specific provisions of the 2019 act, a transgender person has the right to be recognised not only as a transgender but also a right to self-perceived gender, i.e. the female gender.”

– In 2019, a women’s college approached the Kerala High Court seeking to quash the state government’s orders granting reservation to transgenders in academic institutions. While members of the ministry were quick to mock the college in derision,  the college held its ground (for now). The government also issued an order directing colleges to reserve two seats to transgender students in each college. The women’s college management contended in court that female students alone are entitled to admission in a women’s college and the state government has failed to take note of circumstances like these. The management felt that if transgender students are admitted, the nature of the college will be changed. The government order stands.

– A post-op trans-identifying male became the  principal of a woman’s college in Kolkata. He claims that it is because he was asked to register as a male lecturer, he decided to undergo a ‘sex change operation.’ No matter what he does to his body, what choices he makes as an adult, a man should not be permitted to take charge of a women only college. India has a huge amount of dropouts among female students due to family pressure, early marriage, pregnancy, and for religious reasons. Some young women are married off in their first year of college and yet, they turn up for classes, fully pregnant, determined to finish their degrees. Many don’t share such resolve, or families forcefully keep them at home despite what the women want. In many cases, families ‘allow’ their daughters to attend college because it is women-only. Having a man run a women’s college situated in a rural part of an Indian state is therefore unjust.

A senior official at Delhi’s Tihar jail, the country’s largest correctional facility said, “Currently, we have about 8-10 transgender inmates. The transmen are lodged in male prisons while transwomen are in female prisons according to their choice”

Prisons:

– The home ministry has asked prison authorities across the country to create separate enclosures or wards and earmark separate toilets and shower facilities for trans men and trans women. But a senior official at Delhi’s Tihar jail, the country’s largest correctional facility, said  transgender inmates are well assimilated with other prisoners. “Currently, we have about 8-10 transgender inmates. The transmen are lodged in male prisons while transwomen are in female prisons according to their choice. The MHA advisory also says any separate enclosure should not result in their complete isolation. We also monitor their security situation.”

Sports:

– In a university in Calicut, a city in the state of Kerala, a trans-identified male participated in women’s sports kicking a woman out of her rightful spot. “Calicut University made history while letting a transgender student compete in the university level athletics competition along with female students” –  a news source.

Hostels and bathrooms:

– From April 2018, Tata Institute of Social Sciences has earmarked the ground floor of an  existing girls hostel to accommodate gender non-conforming students admitted to the institute. In the months since, residents of the hostel are working with the administration to make the space ‘inclusive.’

– In the month of December 2018, the signs ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ were removed from both washrooms at Ashoka University, and subsequently replaced with ‘gender neutral.’

There are resources made available with the express intent to do something worthwhile for women and girl children, but that’s only on paper, it seems. The justice system fails its women over and over. We urgently need to create a sustained agitation over matters of women’s safety, particularly marginalised women’s safety. Meanwhile, whether it is the crude apathy to women’s plight, or the greedy desire to swindle money, women’s safety is not being prioritised in this country.  It can be concluded that women are certainly not safe, not even in the confines of ‘safety shelters.’ And with the advent of ‘gender ideology’ being imposed upon India, the very word ‘woman’ has been assimilated by men. Indeed, how can women’s safety be tackled and legislated for when the word ‘woman’ itself has lost all meaning?

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