Sexuality Rights Campaign in Kerala

[Guest guest]

THE SEXUALITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN. OCTOBER 23-25 , A REPORT

Organisers: SANGAMA and FIRM

Background

The collective struggle of sexuality minorities to claim their identity, space

and rights in the society as well as to the state, going on for a few decades

now (also known as the sexuality movement), has been trying to bring in changes

in the attitude of the general society, in welfare and development policies, in

laws and other spheres of life.

THE SEXUALITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN is an endeavor to raise a nation-wide discourse

and debate that will bring in desired changes for the benefit of sexuality

minorities.

Focus

The major focus area of the campaign covers:

· Changes in existing discriminatory laws in India section 377 and Immoral

Trafficking Prevention Act. The campaign’s major aim is to repeal both laws, as

these laws are used against sexuality minorities and fail to serve the actual

purpose of their existence.

· State recognition for hijra-kothi and other transsexual, transgender people

recognition of sex change procedure, post transformation recognition through

passport, ration card etc.

· Bring in policy level changes to include sexuality minorities in welfare and

development policies.

· Generate a nation-wide discussion in order to initiate parliamentary and state

level discussions among the polity.

· Generate public support in order to bring changes in societal attitude towards

sexuality minorities, particularly the economically marginalized sections.

The Campaign:

The Campaign will work simultaneously at different levels, with different

constituencies in order to bring in the desired changes.

Public meetings as public opinion is the most important instrument in bringing

social changes of any kind, the campaign will hold a series of public meeting in

20 cities/ town in India. There will also be 1 national meeting in Bangalore and

2 events in Delhi to discuss the issues.

Judiciary a team of lawyers and researchers will hold discussion with judges,

lawyers and other members of the judicial fraternity to examine the laws, their

application and possible changes.

State institutions discussions will be held with National Human Rights

commission, National Commission for Women, National AIDS Control Organization,

Indian Commission for Medical Research, National Institute for Mental Health and

Neuro- Sciences and similar state level institutions to discuss issues of human

rights abuse of sexuality minorities and possible respite through policy

changes.

Media the campaign hopes to generate a sensitive and sensible media response to

draw appropriate public attention to help the public understand issues of

sexuality, discrimination and rights.

The Campaign in Kerala

The four day campaign in Kerala began on 23rd at Kesari Memorial hall,

Thiruvananthapuram.The Speakers demanded changes in existing laws, Section 377

of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, which

they said have discriminated against the rights of sexual minorities.

The debate was the first in the series of meetings being organized in the State

as part of a nation-wide campaign for the rights of sexual minorities. The

campaign is led by Sangama (Bangalore) and Foundation for Integrated Research on

Mental Health (FIRM)

B.R.P. Bhasker, media analyst who participated in the discussion, said that

basic human rights were not just for the majority. External factors like

religion, political beliefs or sexual orientation did not alter one's right

to live with dignity, he said.

Many of the basic laws that bind society dates back to the colonial age and

successive Governments have not had the political will to repeal them. South

Africa, as soon as it gained freedom, repealed its police law that had been

framed by the British, while India still follows the basic structure formulated

by the British, Mr. Bhasker said

J Reghu (Social Critic and Writer) said that we become more voyeuristic and

morality has become an obsolete idea and should be changed to accept the rights

of the sexually marginalized and sex workers. He sited the examples of police

arrests of sex workers and the court procedures and how the police and judges

ask questions while he and his friends were working to take them on bail.

M.G Radha Krishnan (India Today) said that the rights of the sexuality

minorities are very important. He said that the media had responded to their

issues very positively till recently and changed a lot now days. He said that

this opportunity should be utilized and there should be efforts to educate

members of parliament and state legislator to pass bills so that the rights

should be preserved

Deepa Nair, a campaigner for the rights of sexual minorities, said that laws

should be framed so that homosexual behavior was not criminalized. Society's

notions of what constitutes sexual rights or wrongs were violating the basic

rights of sexual minorities the rights that any citizen should have regardless

of the choices that they make in their personal life, she said.Deepa Nair

mentioned that all over the world the rights of sexuality minorities are

violated and they are badly treated by different elements in the society and

family and violence is predominant. A fact-finding conducted by a team revealed

that violence and crucification at families resulted in the suicides of many

lesbian couples and one of the partners.

Chandini (Hijjra Activist from sangama) and Nandu (A lesbian Activist from FIRM)

spoke about their personal problems and the problems of their community members

and re assured the for repealing 377.Dr.Chand said majority of the medical

fraternity believes that homosexuality is an illness and should be cured.Bana

mallika chaudhuri spoke about the purpose of the campaign and Subhash was the

moderator of the event.

The Cochin event was organized at Ashirbhavan on 24th which was attended by

Adv.Ram Kumar (President Bar Association, Kerala High Court), MrJoy Varghese,

Asst.Commissioner of police (Traffic), Prof.Soman(Cochin Universityof Science

and Technology). Chandini, Bana Mallika Chaudhuri and Subhash spoke from the

organizers side.They explained why the campaign was for. Lizy (member of Sex

Workers’ Forum Kerala) shared their experiences and few project people also

spoke.

Mr. Ram Kumar criticized the double standard in implementing law by the police.

He cited the example of the Kumarakam where DGP became the door keeper for the

sexual relation ship of the son of a VIIP in the country where in many other

places people arrested for the same reason. He also said that there should not

be any difference between the star hotels and ordinary hotels in similar

situations.

Mr. Ram Kumar was of the view that more rights lead to sexual anarchy.Sec.377 is

in existence in different parts of the world and former Malaysian leader Mahatir

Mohammed lost his political career just because of that. Sexual anarchy might

lead to moral distress. Morality should be preserved at any cost as it is the

foundation for many institutions. He said that sex workers are in misery and he

could not support the idea of sexuality rights as proposed by the organizers of

the event. He then took almost half an hour to explain the importance of

morality and family and importance of legal system to support it.

Mr. Joy said that he was very sympathetic to wards the sex workers. In the case

of sec 377 there was no arrest made unless the abused lodge a complaint. He also

explained as a police officer how they are forced to implement the provisions of

the law of the land. He said in many cases they get complaint from the local

people that some thing is happening and that never happens in the case of star

hetel.he said he was against changing the law. We need to modify the law if

there are any draw backs and free sex can not be allowed.

Prof.Soman (KUSAT) said that he believed in morality and the sacredness of

family. There was no point in saying that sexuality rights are to be preserved.

Morality has played an important role in social system and preserving good

families so he can not support this campaign.

Mr.Boban of a government funded HIV/AIDS prevention project said that all the

sex workers with whom he was working over the last 5 years said that they would

like to do some other jobs. He also said that hetero sexuality is the basic norm

and this could be visible even among the gay couples and lesbian couples who

appeared in the media discussions in TV channel as one like a male and another

like a female. He also said that he was so sorry to disappoint the organizers

that he can not support the idea of the campaign.

Bana Mallika then rose and said the purpose of the campaign was to support

sexual minorities and sex workers rights. Sighting examples if marital rapes,

child abuse in families she said that family is not safe place either. “Who are

we to say that people should not have sex or do sex work?” She said. It is

individual freedom and we can not judge it set by the standards of morality.

“Morality has nothing to do with the rights of these people and it is a

different topic and we can not reach anywhere if we speak about it”, She added

Subhash said that those who oppose sexuality rights and support morality are in

the shell of their on construction.Siting Foucault on how families, religion,

sexuality and gender and other social institutions are constructed in the

society, he said that people are in a moral dilemma and they have this reason of

social construction which is to be deconstructed. Instead they should not judge

and make comments on the rights of the others.

Sexuality minorities are a group of people should have their rights to be

protected and that can not necessarily be understood by others. If one needs to

know their problems they them self become a sexuality minority. Morality never

helps us to address this issue. For us the rights of sexuality marginalized

people are human rights. It applies freedom, dignity, democracy and human

rights. He also explained the context of how law is created and how it becomes

obsolete and useless as society changes.

He said that we should change law once it is found unfit whoever be the creator

of the law. We can not accept it just because it was constructed by a then

existing great man, a president, a prime minister and so on.Siting the

complaints lodged by many of the house wives in family courts he said that our

families are the worst place where all human rights violations, child abuses and

violence take place. Many of the so called unwilling sex workers are came from

the families only. There are women who raped by their father or immediate family

members and then became sex workers. So family is not that sacred and safe at

all.

He also said that sexual minority identity is classified scientifically by insey

Scale, DSM 4 and psychiatric Associations of USA and Japan and one of them do

believe that it is a deviance or illness.

The campaign is not for free sex and we do not believe that it leads to sexual

narchy and we do not believe that men and men, men and women and men and animals

are going to have open sex in the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium because of this.

Sexual freedom is just like liquor once you prohibit you gets illicit, polluted,

infected and unsafe ones. Morality is not a medicine for that. If we were that

moral as our friends said we can not have 5 million HIV positive people in this

country.

So leave that issue and come to our actual question of human rights and sexual

rights as fundamental to human dignity. Individuals have rights to have

consensual sex of any nature-between men and men, men and women, women and

women- unless and until it hinder the rights of others. Sexual freedom and

rights are real needs and they are human rights. He pleaded that sexual freedom

would never leads to sexual anarchy rather it liberates humanity

The Campaign in Thrissur was held at Sahitya Academy Hall. It was started with a

memorial speech of Sabira, sex workers who died recently.Chandrika (A Sex

worker) and Maitreya shared their memories of Sabira.

Subhash explained the purpose of the campaign.

Mr. Venu, former national leader of CPM (ML) explained the context which led to

the formation of institutions of family private property and Marriage based on

hetero sexuality. He narrated how futile are those values.Mr.Venu offered his

moral and intellectual support for the campaign. Ivan questioned the concept of

“Unnatural Sex”.he said for them homosexuality is natural. He narrated different

stories in which police and goons attacked male and female sex workers. He also

shared his difficulties to remain as a sex worker.

Others who spoke include chandini, Sivan (Male Sex worker from FIRM), Maitreya

and Babu.A screening of “Many people Many desires” (A film on Sexuality

Minorities, Produced by Sangama) was also held after the eeting.Mr.Priyanandanan

and Shanmauga Das (Both National Award Winners) were among those watched it.

The four day campaign ended on 26th in Calicut which was held at Nalanda

Auditorium. The meeting was started with a memorial to Sabira.Saumini (Member,

Sex Workers Forum Kerala) and son Raphael (sangama) spoke. The debate was

attended by Mr.Ramanunni (Writer), Mr.Subhash Babu (Retired S.P), Maitreya,

Chandini, Mamu, Adv.Tito , Adv.Preethi, Nazar(Male Sex worker from FIRM),

Nalini Jameela,Sini(A Sex Worker) and Subhash.

Mr.Subhash babu opposed the idea of Sexual rights as long as there is a law

existing against it. He explained how women were arrested by the police and

pressures on police to do that.

Adv.Tito explained the legal aspects of Sex work based on ITP Act. The

campaigners explained the purpose again.Sini and Nazar narrated the problems of

being a sex worker. They also explained how the police use and abuse them. The

discriminatory treatment of the police officials was also shared. Both of them

were of the view that they have been sexually abused by the police.

The campaign was widely covered by the press and TV Channels. It was a great

success in sensitizing the media and general public. All the sex workers and

sexuality minorities introduced them to the audience as what they are. There was

discussion in Asianet news who invited chandini and Subhash as speakers. Other

Channels (Kairali TV, Surya TV, India Vision, Jeevan TV and local Channels)

covered it at respective places. Many other were invited by the media to discuss

the issue including Director General of Police of Kerala Mr.Hormese Tharakan

(Who spoke to Kairali TV)

SEX WORKER'S FORUM KERALA

FIRM-ANASOOYA, T.C.14/1514,Beatrice Mansion

Thycaud Post, Thiruvananthapuram-695 014, Kerala, India.

Tel: ++91-471-2324060, ++ 91-9447389517

E-mail: <swfk@...>