I was reading an online newspaper the other day, and came upon the tear-jerking news story about the suicide of a teen transgender. The news report had the heart-wrenching suicide note that ‘she’ had left on ‘her’ social media page. The 1000+ words post gave a vivid account of ‘her’ prolonged battle with all those who relentlessly kept denying ‘her’ gender identity, due to fear of societal backlash. ‘Her’ suicide note ends with the hope that her story would help ‘fix society’ someday.
Our bigoted world thus lost yet another talented teenager who desperately wanted to live a dignified life like any other normal human being. But the world around has robbed her off the happiness and peace ‘she’ wished for, thus making ‘her’ take a sudden and drastic step in the hope to find peace in heaven, far away from the prejudiced world that kept mocking at ‘her’ gender transition each day. Although I couldn’t fathom ‘her’ pain and anguish, ‘her’ story was thought-provoking, as it unveiled the intense pain of being trapped to live with a wrong identity and persona. It also made me think about the sadness, hopelessness, and desperation of many others transgenders who continue to hope for a day when their community gets the deserved freedom, respect and equality. The more I tried to shake away my thoughts about their plight, the more they kept bumping on to me, and I was soon engrossed in an stream of thoughts about the predicaments of transgenders who struggle to live a normal life each day, in our supposedly progressive world.
While there are no statistical backing to support this statement, I can undoubtedly say that the increasing number of suicides of transgender people indicate the horrifying narrow-mindedness of our society. Every time I happen to read about the distressing stories of transgenders who continually face rejection discrimination, victimization, violence, and mockery from family, friends, and society, I cannot help but wonder why the world is so hell-bent on making the life of transgenders miserable and hellish. A society that cannot extent a hand of acceptance shouldn’t be keen on finding ways to marginalize transgenders, as they too deserve the same rights that we enjoy each day. Sadly, due to constant marginalization and vilification, most of them embrace death, in the hope to break free from the torments that they undergo each day.
Throughout my life, I've always treated transgenders with equal respect. No matter wherever I meet them, unlike those who leave no stones unturned to intimidate them with blatant stares and lewd comments, I have keenly maintained the warmth and normalcy that makes them feel at ease. This is because, I strongly believe that if knowing another person's life or perspective is beyond our limits, accepting them in the way they are is the best way to let them live their lives peacefully and dignifiedly. However, most of the times, the world around me hardly show the time and patience to respect the persona and feelings of transgenders.
When did we realize our gender? Can anyone of us recall whether it was a choice that we made, or it happened subconsciously? The process of gender recognition remains the same for all, but unlike us who can easily categorize ourselves, transgenders are unable to fully express themselves, or, find it hard to defy the societal norms for righting what has been described as wrong and sinful for ages. So, if we lack the ability to decipher the worry that they are into, let’s not freak out or make a big deal of it. Looking beyond the age-old man woman classification is a matter of shame to several people, but, I believe this is inevitable, as one can really understand a person only by climbing into his/her skin and walking around in it. Desolation and suicides of transgenders are real and serious subjects that require immediate action, but sadly they are often evaded as our dogmatic mind-sets fail to recognize the struggle of those who live the misery of getting entrapped in an identity that’s dynamically opposite to their entire self. As we continue our tightrope walk in the world of hatred, wars, communal riots, and deadly disease, we make living more difficult by failing to love and accept each other.
Trans, gay or straight, love and acceptance are what they yearn for, the reason why we have to look at the world around beyond the contours of traditional gender classifications.
Transgenders are not outcastes. They remain so for being trapped in bodies of the wrong gender. They are neither delusional nor psychotic. It’s just that their inside doesn't match the outside. Transgender people should be bestowed the same respect that we deserve. Their bodies are their own so are their mind and freedom to live with dignity and equality.
Considering the fact that they keep facing a sea of struggles from both within themselves and outside world, why not lessen their challenges by accepting them for the way they are?
Anecdote - How does it feel like getting trapped in a strange place? Or how would you respond if you were forced to dress in opposite-gender clothing and follow a variant behaviour throughout a week? It’s not just suffocating and terrifying, but might also trigger immeasurable rage and anguish, driving you to the verge of madness. If that’s what you might experience for those momentary transformations, can you fathom the anger and sadness of a soul that gets trapped in a wrong body throughout the entire life?
Who is a juvenile?
Juvenile and the benchmark of being juvenile has been a puzzling dilemma for me ever since the horrific Delhi gang rape on that most disastrous December 16th. While nothing less than capital punishment should be the equitable verdict for such brutalism, one of them managed to get away from it as juvenile. Others who were found guilty along with him were sentenced to capital punishment but he was given only three years imprisonment in a reformation institution. Definition of juvenile must not be counted on age. In olden days, time was the only way to master an art. With the advancement of technology, time is not the unit of measurement for mastering art. Accessibility to modern means like internet connections, unrestricted porn sites and gadgets which enable to have utmost privacy for the youth to surf, view and master the ugliest side of sex art make them masters at the pre-end of teen age. Technically, a juvenile is too young a person for understanding the sense and seriousness of the crime (act) as he is unaware of such an act. (an act as horrendous, brutal and torturous as rape). In this crime if media reports are to be believed, this supposedly ‘juvenile’ seems “the most brutal" among the six accused and convicted who took turns to rape and torture Nirbhaya and go to the extent of inhumanly torturing and humiliating the very womanhood in her with an iron road, leaving indefinable injuries which resulted in her death a fortnight later. While both the system and the world are well aware of the unfathomable intensity of the crime, I am yet to fathom the reasons behind the disparity in punishments given.
The yardstick of being called a juvenile is wholly dependent on the acts committed and definitely not the age. When I am writing this post, a prominent news channel is repeatedly telecasting the appalling story from a South Indian town where a 15 plus year old boy brutally raped and murdered a girl who is less than half his age. Here the laws of the country speak contrary. I find no reason to call the criminal a juvenile, when the crime committed is far from the contours of juvenility. Give the age and the mental makeup, no juvenile grows on physical and mental perspective to commit a sexual act. Hence, if a juvenile performs a sexual act whatsoever, technically he/she has to be categorized as an adult, and should be awarded the supreme punishment. The correction home where a juvenile offender enjoys his forced ‘vacation’ is no less than a breeding home where he gets morphed in to a more dangerous predator that no society can afford to accommodate. A juvenile committing a predetermined sexual violence should never get away with a mere lash on the wrist. Here is the reason: According to a recently published online article, about “50 percent of all sexual crimes in India are committed by teenagers. (who know they can get away with it.)” The advocates of juvenile justice keep affirming the need of punishments that brings in reform and rehabilitation, and is devoid of any vindictiveness or revenge. But as I read the medical reports that cite the mortal injuries inflicted on Nirbhaya, I cannot help but wonder why many still cry foul on against amending Juvenile Justice Laws.
Juvenile is called so based on the physical and mental state of being of a person. A juvenile delinquent is as sexually active as a perverted adult. He/she can no more be counted as a juvenile just on the age. I am not a legal professional nor am I aware of the legal intricacies. For lack of knowledge on the complex legal quandaries, I don’t think I can advocate on lowering the juvenile age limit, but as a commoner and strong follower of the judicial system of the country, I believe that a juvenile law applies only to the crimes that can be categorized as juvenile, whereas rape, murder, acid attack, robbery, kidnapping, and other criminal acts can never be included in it. When it comes to crimes so horrific and anti-social as rape and murder, rehabilitation is a faint possibility, but for the miracles like Reni Isaac. However, swift actions and appropriate punishments can definitely send a strong message across the society, thus making sexual offenders think twice before violating a woman’s freedom or trying to trespass her body. Hence punishment as a corrective measure should depend on the gravity of the crimes committed, it be by juvenile or adult.
The culpability of a juvenile is often taken as his immaturity. I wonder what on earth can make one come to the conclusion that all men on earth get matured by the age of 18. As adolescence can scientifically last until 20, It seems strange when the world around gets clung on to the age of 18 as the onset of adulthood. This brings in a curious question. If 18 years mark the onset of adulthood, and brings in all the characteristics of an adult male or female, what should technically be the age of a juvenile who does a fully-fledged sexual act on someone? 18 years? While these cruelties are hard-core actualities, the punishment for them varies for the less-than 18 and the 18+, just because of the age, the mere number, and not the mental makeup and the intensity of the act committed. Childhood and adulthood hardly rests upon the age, but the acts committed. Given the heinousness of crimes committed the under aged should be treated on par with the adults and should be given the same punishment, because juvenile is not the personification of utmost heinousness to commit a spine chilling cruelty.
The yardstick of being called a juvenile is wholly dependent on the acts committed and definitely not the age. When I am writing this post, a prominent news channel is repeatedly telecasting the appalling story from a South Indian town where a 15 plus year old boy brutally raped and murdered a girl who is less than half his age. Here the laws of the country speak contrary. I find no reason to call the criminal a juvenile, when the crime committed is far from the contours of juvenility. Give the age and the mental makeup, no juvenile grows on physical and mental perspective to commit a sexual act. Hence, if a juvenile performs a sexual act whatsoever, technically he/she has to be categorized as an adult, and should be awarded the supreme punishment. The correction home where a juvenile offender enjoys his forced ‘vacation’ is no less than a breeding home where he gets morphed in to a more dangerous predator that no society can afford to accommodate. A juvenile committing a predetermined sexual violence should never get away with a mere lash on the wrist. Here is the reason: According to a recently published online article, about “50 percent of all sexual crimes in India are committed by teenagers. (who know they can get away with it.)” The advocates of juvenile justice keep affirming the need of punishments that brings in reform and rehabilitation, and is devoid of any vindictiveness or revenge. But as I read the medical reports that cite the mortal injuries inflicted on Nirbhaya, I cannot help but wonder why many still cry foul on against amending Juvenile Justice Laws.
Juvenile is called so based on the physical and mental state of being of a person. A juvenile delinquent is as sexually active as a perverted adult. He/she can no more be counted as a juvenile just on the age. I am not a legal professional nor am I aware of the legal intricacies. For lack of knowledge on the complex legal quandaries, I don’t think I can advocate on lowering the juvenile age limit, but as a commoner and strong follower of the judicial system of the country, I believe that a juvenile law applies only to the crimes that can be categorized as juvenile, whereas rape, murder, acid attack, robbery, kidnapping, and other criminal acts can never be included in it. When it comes to crimes so horrific and anti-social as rape and murder, rehabilitation is a faint possibility, but for the miracles like Reni Isaac. However, swift actions and appropriate punishments can definitely send a strong message across the society, thus making sexual offenders think twice before violating a woman’s freedom or trying to trespass her body. Hence punishment as a corrective measure should depend on the gravity of the crimes committed, it be by juvenile or adult.
The culpability of a juvenile is often taken as his immaturity. I wonder what on earth can make one come to the conclusion that all men on earth get matured by the age of 18. As adolescence can scientifically last until 20, It seems strange when the world around gets clung on to the age of 18 as the onset of adulthood. This brings in a curious question. If 18 years mark the onset of adulthood, and brings in all the characteristics of an adult male or female, what should technically be the age of a juvenile who does a fully-fledged sexual act on someone? 18 years? While these cruelties are hard-core actualities, the punishment for them varies for the less-than 18 and the 18+, just because of the age, the mere number, and not the mental makeup and the intensity of the act committed. Childhood and adulthood hardly rests upon the age, but the acts committed. Given the heinousness of crimes committed the under aged should be treated on par with the adults and should be given the same punishment, because juvenile is not the personification of utmost heinousness to commit a spine chilling cruelty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)