Unable To Get Job Due To Sexuality, Kerala Transgender Teacher Seeks Euthanasia
A double post-graduate transwoman from Kerala has approached the Legal Services Authority seeking the help of a lawyer to apply for euthanasia in the High Court as she is not being allowed to work in a respectable job, due to her sexuality.
Aneera Kabeer, a native of Ottappalam in the Palakkadu district claims she has master's degrees in Sociology and Political Science and a Master's in Education. Aneera has also qualified for the State Eligibility Test (SET) for higher secondary teachers, but she has not been able to find a job.
According to her despite her qualification, she was turned away at more than a dozen interviews after releasing her sexual identity.
Aneera said that in November, she had received a temporary job as a junior sociology teacher at a government school in Palakkad.
Faced regular harassment
There too Aneera says she was harassed by some of the colleagues and was told not to come to the school after January 6.
After she approached the Legal Services Authority seeking help for euthanasia, Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty reached out to Aneera on Wednesday and offered all help from the government.
Aneera told the minister that she was the sole breadwinner of the family and that she had lost her brother recently to an accident.
Following this, the minister has directed the concerned official to ensure that Aneera is reinstated at the same school.
The school on Wednesday informed Aneera that she can join back at work from January 15.
What the transgender policy says
Aneera had to go through these despite the fact that Kerala was the first state in India to have a transgender policy to end discrimination and promote the social integration of transgenders.
The policy coverd all the categories of transgenders and intersex people. It also emphasises the rights of the minority group to self-identify themselves as man, woman or Transgender as stated in the Supreme Court judgement.?
In 2018, Kerala had announced a Rs 2 lakh financial aid for transgenders for sex reassignment surgery.
In December 2020, the Social Justice Department had set aside Rs 6 lakh for giving scholarships for transgender students from Class 7 to Post Graduate and professional courses who study in the state government, government-aided and self-financing educational institutions.
In 2021, the Kerala government decided to include ¡®Transgender¡¯ as a gender option in all its application forms as well as voters¡¯ lists.
Last week the Kerala government had also had recommended the induction of transgenders in the state police.
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