Transgender persons demand special category in police fitness tests

Speaking to the media, one of the protestors, Tanusri, said the State government and the Telangana State Level Police Recruitment Board (TSLPRB) had not considered providing the third gender option for transgender persons in applications for police jobs.

Warangal: Demanding that the police consider them under a special category in gender instead of male or female, nearly a dozen transgender people staged a dharna in front of the Kakatiya University campus where physical tests for recruitment of stipendiary constables and Sub-Inspectors are being conducted on Friday.

Speaking to the media, one of the protestors, Tanusri, said the State government and the Telangana State Level Police Recruitment Board (TSLPRB) had not considered providing the third gender option for transgender persons in applications for police jobs.

“We are forced to compete with male counterparts to prove our physical fitness and endurance for the job. This is not fair. How can we compete with males since we underwent surgery for a female body?” she asked.

“The State government should have given a separate column for transgender persons. We need a special reservation. We have our changed names in the Aadhaar card and voter ID. But the application required us to provide our name and gender as mentioned in the Class 10 memo. So we have applied as males but we have fully transitioned already. It is unfair to make us compete with males,” Tanusri, an M.Com graduate, said.

The reservation should be given as per the Supreme Court’s NALSA judgement of 2014, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020, she said.

“Fourteen transgender persons have qualified for the first time. All of them have fully transitioned after undergoing surgery and they should compete with women or have separate criteria for selection,” said Laila, a member of the Telangana State Transgender Welfare Board.

When contacted, Warangal Commissioner of Police (CP) AV Ranganath said one candidate from the transgender community had appeared for the physical test and could not clear the test.

“As they marked themselves as males in the application, we considered the candidate as male,” he said, adding that the TSLPRB would be informed of the issue.