‘SC rulings welcome, but life isn’t rosy yet for women'

The Supreme Court’s recent striking down of some patriarchial practices is welcome, but that doesn’t really change the situation on the ground unless people become inclusive, according to activists.

Anindya Hajra, of Pratyay Gender Trust, said scrapping Section 377 of the IPC does not end the current complications that transgenders face. “A child still has to face bullying in school for his/her sexual behavioural changes. Nothing can be done unless society fully accepts us,” she said at a panel discussion on ‘We The Women’ here on Sunday.

She continued: “Schools should admit transgender children along with specially-abled ones, offering educational opportunities to all. The government should quickly enact the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill.”

Masooma Ranalvi, a leading activist against female genital mutilation (FGM), said the impact of the age-old practice was not a temporary occurrence but a permanent bugbear. FGM entails the cutting of a part of a woman’s genitalia to curb premarital sexual desires.

“It has a lot of negative effect on the sex life of women once they get married. It was at the age of seven that I fell victim to it and it took me 40 years to realise and understand what had happened to me,” she said.

Ranalvi said after genital mutilation, a woman’s close relationships, even with her mother or grandmother, do not remain the same. “My grandmother was the reason for my genital mutilation, but by the time I understood the practice, she was no more.”