The gender spectrum is a consequence of the complex interplay between culture and highly-nuanced and protean brain.
INDIA'S TRANSGENDER community, numbered close to 5 million, is up in arms. Last November, the Union government rejected a Parliament committee’s amendments to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016. The committee felt that the very definition of “transgender” in the bill as “partly female or male; or a combination of female and male; or neither female nor male” goes “against global norms and violates the right to self-determined gender identity”.
The critics of the bill point out that a former version of the bill allowed transgender people to identify themselves as a “man”, a “woman”, or a “transgender”. The current bill takes away that right and, what’s worse, it gives that authority to a District Screening Committee comprising a chief medical officer, a psychiatrist, a social worker, and, a member of the transgender community. However, it is not clear on what grounds they will approve or reject anyone who, regardless of their biology, embraces a particular identity.
The controversy has inflamed the ever-simmering gender/sex, masculine/feminine tinderbox. Gender is often conflated with sex. Biologically speaking, society is classified into a binary of men and women based on obvious sexual differences—crudely put, penis means man, vagina means woman. That’s sex for you. Those who don’t fit the procrustean bed of sex are either surgically tailored and assigned one (mostly in the West), or tolerated as transgender/intersex (for instance, hijras in India), albeit with very few civil rights.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Trade On Emissions
EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a tariff on imports, is designed to protect European industries in the guise of climate action.
'The project will facilitate physical and cultural decimation of indigenous people'
The Great Nicobar Project has all the hallmarks of a disaster-seismic, ecological, human. Why did it get the go-ahead?
TASTE IT RED
Popularity of Karnataka's red jackfruit shows how biodiversity can be conserved by ensuring that communities benefit from it
MANY MYTHS OF CHIPKO
Misconceptions about the Chipko movement have overshadowed its true objectives.
The politics and economics of mpox
Africa's mpox epidemic stems from delayed responses, neglect of its health risks and the stark vaccine apartheid
Emerging risks
Even as the world gets set to eliminate substances threatening the ozone layer, climate change and space advancement pose new challenges.
JOINING THE CARBON CLUB
India's carbon market will soon be a reality, but will it fulfil its aim of reducing emissions? A report by PARTH KUMAR and MANAS AGRAWAL
Turn a new leaf
Scientists join hands to predict climate future of India's tropical forests
Festering troubles
The Democratic Republic of Congo struggles to contain mpox amid vaccine delays, conflict and fragile healthcare.
India sees unusual monsoon patterns
THE 2024 southwest monsoon has, between June 1 and September 1, led to excess rainfall in western and southern states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, while others like Nagaland, Manipur and Punjab recorded a deficit.