Stripped of dignity

The public humiliation of Pinky Pramanik must stop now. A gold medal winning athlete in the Commonwealth and Asian Games she has been accused of rape by her live-in partner.

The latter has also claimed that Pramanik has male sexual organs. The treatment she has been subjected to by the police, medical personnel, media and the public is reason for serious concern. Pramanik is a woman until proven otherwise. Yet she was taken into custody and has been accompanied, questioned and examined physically by male police.  She has been lodged in a male ward of a prison in Kolkata. This is a gross violation of the law and the rights of the accused. As if this wasn’t bad enough, an MMS of her gender test conducted in a private nursing home -- where she is seen naked -- has been uploaded online. The MMS has reportedly gone viral, laying bare how voyeuristic society has become.

A gender determination test is an intensely private matter. Pramanik’s test has been made extremely public. If she is indeed guilty of rape, she should be tried in a court. But even before that, her gender has been put on public trial. Sections of the media have reported the case with lascivious details provided by her partner, her colleagues and the police. The treatment meted out to Pramanik says a lot about our society and our attitudes to sexuality issues. The gender dimension in this cannot be ignored. If women are discriminated against, those of indeterminate gender are subjected to far worse. The media speculates endlessly on the sexual preferences of celebrities, when these are personal issues and none of its business. Those whose sexuality does not conform to our idea of what we deem to be ‘normal’ are harassed and heckled, even at the receiving end of violence.

An insensitive legal system and a prurient public have stripped Pramanik of her dignity. Her hounding, ridicule and humiliation must stop now. Those who filmed her gender test must be identified and punished as should the police on whose watch the filming happened.  While it is impossible to undo the terrible hurt and anguish we have heaped on Pramanik and her family, introspection of what we have done to her and ensuring that justice is done to her might perhaps prevent others from suffering a similar fate.