We weren’t done applauding the remarkable decision taken by West Bengal government that directed Kolkata police to include Hijras in the Civic Police Volunteer Force (CPVC), and now comes another good news that says India is set to get its first transgender sub-inspector of Police.
The news comes from Tamil Nadu, a state hailed for forming the first transgenders welfare board, which is said to be the first not only in India but probably in the world.
Following a historic decision made by Madras High Court, K. Prithika Yashini is soon to become India’s first transgender sub-inspector of Police.
Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TMUSRB) to appoint K. Prithika Yashini as a sub-inspector, as she is deemed perfectly entitled for the job.
Prithika was born and brought up as Pradeep Kumar. But her journey, unsurprisingly, wasn’t easy. She had to fight a long legal fight to get things going her way.
In the first go, her application was rejected due to the absence of ‘third gender category’ in the state police recruitment board.
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She moved the High Court. As a consequence of this, she was allowed to appear for written, physical and endurance test, and also viva-voce. While she cleared all her rounds perfectly, in a 100-metre dash, she missed out by 1 second. But, she was testified to be an SI.
According to The Hindu, Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana of the First Bench made the board realize their failure at not adding the ‘third gender category’ despite the Supreme Court’s direction.
Excited by things turning out in her favour, Prithika who also hopes to become India’s first transgender IPS Officer told NDTV, “I’m excited. It’s a new beginning for the entire transgender community,”
India has seen some significant feats this year in relevance to recognizing the talent sidelining other factors. Manabi Bandyopadhyay (India’s first transgender college principal) and Akkai Padmashali (First transgender recipient of Rajyotsava award) are a couple of notable examples.
Let’s hope more path-breaking decisions like these that give importance to talent over prejudices, are taken often. Let’s hope, people who don’t easily get socially accepted because of their choices that don’t exactly conform to social norms, get to live their dreams.
After all, it is dreams, aspirations and goals we are talking about- things that don’t have any genders or castes or religions.
Ananta Sharma in http://www.storypick.com
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