It has been a long hard battle that has ended with a win, but the war is far from over. Meet Atri Kar, a 27-year-old transgender applicant to the West Bengal Government sector exam who found no column available by which to identify her gender.
Atri Kar
Atri loves to read novels and is a student of elocution at Bratati Bandipadhyay¡¯s institute. She has a caring family that understands her and supports her and helps her in her battles at carving out a niche for herself in mainstream society.
Two years after the Supreme Court passed a judgment making it mandatory for government offices to include the ¡®third gender¡¯ in all its forms, the West Bengal State Administrative Tribunal on December 5 finally issued an order directing the state government to amend all its online as well as off-line forms to include the ¡°others¡¯¡¯ column or the third gender.
Atri Kar
A resident of Hooghly¡¯s Tribeni, Kar lives with her family, comprising her parents, elder brother, his wife and son. ¡°I am a primary school teacher at Kuntighat,¡± says Kar, going on to add, ¡°I completed my graduation in English Honours from Calcutta University, following which I took admission in Bardhaman University for my post graduation degree.¡±
However, for Atri, that remained a dream, as she soon had to leave the course midway for being discriminated against.
Having applied for SSC TET (School Service Commission Teachers¡¯ Eligibility Test) and Primary TET, Atri would soon go on to qualify for the Primary TET and join her first institution on January 7, 2014. But what should have been a dream beginning, soon turned dark, as she had to leave the institution for being harassed by the management due to her sexual identity.
Atri Kar
¡°I then joined a second school, where the headmaster Subarna Mandal, really supported me and was understanding of my situation, but there too I faced a lot of social flak,¡± says Atri, adding, ¡°While he was progressive and had awareness regarding the issue, the other teachers in his school did not. So I started facing the same kind of harassment as I did in the first school. He later shifted me to a third school where all the teachers have been very accepting and supportive of me.¡±
¡°My new school treats me like a normal human being,¡± says Atri.
Atri¡¯s nightmares were far from over for when the interview forms finally came for the SSC TET examination that she had given, they too had only two options in the gender column.
¡°This has been a long battle. I first raised the issue with the Education department in 2011. I had just completed my Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) and had applied for a job with the government. I had taken the School Service Commission examination and had qualified. At that point even the Supreme Court order had not been given. The Education department had told me that since I had given the examination as a female that¡¯s how I would be recruited,¡± says Kar.
Meanwhile, Atri had joined RICE in pursuit of realising bigger dreams by cracking the WBCS (West Bengal Staff Selection) examination. Having trained there for one and a half years when she finally tried to fill up the form in 2016 for the examination, she found out that there too, the gender column had only two options, either male or female.
Atri Kar
¡°There was a lack of adequate response on his part, and the last date for the filling up of the form was going, and finally I filed a case against PSC.¡±
¡°I still remember the day we had gone to court, we were already behind many seeking justice, but the judge, Honorable Dipankar Datta, took a keen interest in my case, but since it was a Supreme Court Verdict we were asked to move to the State and Tribunal Court.¡±
According to Atri, the Tribunal too made it a priority case and the very next day passed a hearing that she be allowed to fill up the form offline since the last date for application was looming large and also issued a directive that the online applications must include the third gender.
Atri has filled up the form and is awaiting examinations to be held on January 29th.
¡°I am not blaming anyone, it is not that the government is not doing anything. Since the passing of the verdict by the Supreme Court in 2014, two years have gone by but there has never been a single transgender applicant who has raised the issue. No one has fought for their right! No one wanted to break social conventions and demand justice.¡±
She goes on to add, ¡°Interestingly, PSC was very helpful during this whole ordeal. They helped me out in every step of the way. What remains most interesting to me, however, is the fact that I remember their lawyer coming up to me and saying, ¡°You are the first person who is knocking on the door of the PSC.¡±
Atri believes that this is where things have gone haywire. ¡°See, the government wants data, as long as no one approaches, nothing can be done, there can be no change brought about. And change is a vast term, at least it should begin from somewhere!¡±
¡°Most of the times the transgender are scared that if they do approach and fight for their rights, their future might be ruined, and they cannot be blamed for this as well. Look at the social ostracizations I have faced for coming out. Thankfully I am now at a place which respects me for being a human being more than anything else.¡±
Atri Kar
¡°You know, I have been in relationships, all failed, and social stigma played a very important role in its failure. No one wants to go against society, not even for love. They do not want to settle down, and then just leave me behind.¡±
¡°Even family is sometimes a bit jittery with me. My immediate family is very supportive, but one cannot expect the same from all relatives and neighbours. There are a lot of times when I excuse myself from certain social settings because I know I will not find acceptability there.¡±
¡°The government needs to sensitise the society,¡± feels Atri, ¡°Just adding the third gender in forms might not help, it will perhaps create more problems, for the fear is always there, will the society accept?¡±
Atri Kar
She goes on to add, ¡°There is perhaps a general lack of awareness, most of the times, whatever message is forwarded carries with it a social stigma. Say for example. Whenever, they want to talk about HIV, you will always see posters with the faces of transgender plastered on it. Why? Is it rooted within this community? They need to reach out to the grass root level and make people aware. Either that or it is an uphill battle where people will slowly accept transgender people into mainstream society by seeing them in public offices and as public workers. But for that to happen, even people from the community need to step up.¡±
¡°Awareness is the key, from both ends,¡± feels Atri.
Atri Kar
But Atri feels lucky that her school is one place which looks above everything else. ¡°I have never been made to feel lesser or that my gender identity is any different in my school.¡±
¡°The best part is when my students wait for me every day beside a bridge near my school so that we can all cross the bridge together. That is a welcome routine for me and reminds me there is still hope.¡±