In order to accelerate sustainable development, gender equality plays a major role. Ending all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender is a basic human right that everyone should have. Although a lot of steps are being taken for women empowerment, discrimination against transgenders remains.
In order to accelerate sustainable development, gender equality plays a major role. Ending all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender is a basic human right that everyone should have. Although a lot of steps are being taken for women empowerment, discrimination against transgenders remains.
Public discrimination, lesser or no job opportunities, and forced sex work are just examples of what transgenders have to go through. United Nations adopted 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in 2015 as a universal call to ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by the year 2030. Gender Equality is the 5th SDG listed by the United Nations.
Despite the fact that numerous efforts are being taken to empower women and have equal rights, injustice against transgenders still exists.
Bruna Freespirit, a transgender tattoo artist gave her views on how trans-people are treated in India and why a change is required from both the legal and social aspects. “I feel like people are still not open-minded about transgenders. When it comes to jobs, people don’t hire us because they think we don’t deserve the job”, she said.
Bruna, 24, currently works as a tattoo artist at Inkspace Studio, New Delhi. She is also an LGBTQ+ activist at Nazariya, a non-government organization. Before working at Inkspace Studio, she used to work as a graphic designer in a corporate company.
In her current job, she said that she does not face any discrimination and in fact, people are sweet with her. “I would say this is because most of the young generation is more open-minded towards the LGBTQ+ community as compared to the older generation. A few years back, even I did not have proper knowledge about the community. But, these days most of the young generation seems to know everything”, she said.
However, most of the transgender community in India still face discrimination and does not receive proper job opportunities. According to a report by the United Nations Development Program, the majority of the transgender community in India resorts to work as ceremony dancers, sex workers and others are either self-employed or work with non-government organizations. Bruna believes that the government should make laws that would help the trans-community in getting jobs, only when their condition is going to improve.
After the abolition of Article 377 in September 2018, various companies have started campaigns to hire people specifically from the LGBTQ+ community. ‘A manifesto for trans inclusion in the Indian workplace’ by Godrej was released in December 2018 which was an example of such campaigns.
Hence, India is slowly progressing in terms of gender equality with the trans-community. “One can say that it’s definitely a long run and will take time”, she said.