Talking about the inclusion of information on the prevention of human trafficking in school textbooks, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, on Thursday, called transgenders “The Other Ones”. This is the clip where the minister tries to define transgender. But this isn’t the worst part. The video shows MPs in the background laughing and smiling at this distasteful comment. Watch Video
However, Gandhi’s casual act of debasing the transgender community did not go unnoticed. Meera Sanghamitra, who works with the National Alliance for People’s Movements, expressed her discontentment with Gandhi’s otherisation of the trans community on Facebook.
. @Manekagandhibjp We are #NotOtherOnes or your pets. We are equally human, equal citizens. APOLOGIZE to the entire transgender community NOW, for your extremely derogatory, insenstive reference and gesture. This does not behove a Cabinet Minister! Appalled, Anguished, Ashamed ! pic.twitter.com/v9uPwm8VEj
— Meera Sanghamitra (@meeracomposes) July 27, 2018
Nobody in the Parliament batted an eye when she made the comment of “other ones.” But when Maneka Gandhi made a comment about sex workers, Sumitra Mahajan, the speaker, intervened.The comment was seen as a joke and so far, Maneka Gandhi hasn’t even as addressed it, much less apologized.
Meera also said that when the transgender bill was drafted, it was based on NALSA judgment, one of the major key aspects of which was directing Governments to make laws based on the clause of non-discrimination.
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