Transgenders in Indian Trains

Last Year I visited one of our (Jain religion’s) holy place situated in Giridih in Jharkhand state of India.

It was a family trip. We were excited a lot about it .It was a 20 hours long journey including one full night. We were having a great time in the train during journey.We went to sleep in the night on our respective berths.

In morning we woke up and did the routine work and had some breakfast which we were carrying with us. We were enjoying beautiful morning via the window looking the sceneries outside. Then we heard some loud voices of men. At first we were not sure what it was, but we didn’t have to wait much.

What we saw next, some 4-5 eunuchs (Trans genders) entered into our coach.

They were looking like men wearing Sari (Indian ethical women attire).They started demanding money from each of us. We were like what the hell. Why should we give them money, they all were in good shape and we could not relate them with beggars.

One of them came to me and asked for money. I felt embarrassed in front of the whole family. I didn’t want to give them money, because they were not handicapped beggars.

Seeing my protest, they started shouting and removing their clothes and the impact of that was a ten rupees note in my hand. I didn’t take even one second to hand it over to them and they moved to next compartment showering their blessings.

I felt a bit relieved after they were gone, but it didn’t last long. After around one hour, there was a new group of Trans genders demanding money.

I was like oh God, please save us. This time they chosen one of my brothers and demanded money. We told them that we have already given the money to earlier group. And then came the shocker, the new group told us that previous ones were men not Trans genders. I was like what the hell is going on.

Anyway we had to give them money, as we had already seen what they were capable of. And it continued until we reached out destination.

I felt very sad about the group of men who were portraying themselves as Trans gender just to extract money from common people.

Also I had some serious questions in my mind. I know that god didn’t do justice with them, but does that mean that they have got the rights to harass common people. Cannot we equalize them in our society so that they can live happily and let us live happily. Supreme Court has recognized them but have we?