Celebration of Human Rights Day

The transgender umbrella though identifies similar other identities including intersex, gender non-conforming people and other native and indigenous identities such as Kinnar or Hijra. In most countries because of the existing patriarchal or typical heteronormative structure, it is very difficult for them to enjoy the basic rights or facilities just like other cis-gender people. Even in terms of data, studies etc. related to the challenges they are facing are found very few. Certain countries have introduced trans-inclusive policies including support for gender-affirming care. But other basic rights; such as marriage equality, adoption, property inheritance etc. are still to be worked upon considering their existing legal framework.

Studies of subject matters of spheres such as human rights and gender justice often tend to stop the conversation at some point around women empowerment, women’s justice, undoing patriarchy for the sake of women. But they fail to take cognizance of the people comprising the label ‘woman’. Society and its laws take heteronormativity as the norm, and equate ‘woman’ to ‘female’- two vastly different concepts. Now, if society and its laws both fail to make such an important distinction, one can’t expect any progress or empowerment to be made- and this is merely the tip of the iceberg. 

It is no secret that the LGBTQIA+ community (here forward, “the community”) has always existed in India, just as it did everywhere else on Earth; even has gender identities native to it. However, this community that once flourished and was, overall, revered, rapidly became the most despised, treated so poorly that many end up living on the streets having to fend for themselves- especially the trans community. A common scapegoat for the community’s oppression is colonization- a fair link drawn between the two. But it cannot be denied that post-independence, the government of India- especially the judiciary- have done not even the bare minimum for the upliftment of the community. 

This much is amply clear to any person who reads through the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. The very fact that the legislature saw it fitting to pass such an enactment shows their ignorance of the label ‘transgender’- what it entails, the several gender identities it contains within it. 

The theme for this year was “Moving towards a Trans-Inclusive Society”. With the event formally starting off with the taking of the Human Rights Pledge, followed by an engaging dance performance and the Nukkad Natak (Street Play), the aim was to show the atrocities, the journey of a social reform, and the apparent benefits of community dialogue in our country.

Human Rights Day is celebrated worldwide on 10 December every year. It celebrates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Human Rights & Gender Studies Committee Student’s Bar Association of the School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa Campus, celebrated the Human Rights Day on December 1, 2022.