Kolkata gets country's first transgender OT technician
Kolkata, June 21 : Breaking new ground, Kolkata's Jiya Das has become the first transgender Operation Theatre technician in an Indian hospital, but theatre artists and actors from the community still face discrimination in the culture-loving city, say activists.
Jiya, who once had to dance at gun point in soirees in Uttar Pradesh, is now working in a city-based super-specialty hospital, said Bappaditya Mukherjee, Secretary, Prantakatha, an organisation working for marginalised youth.
"For young people, it is very important to get livelihood. Almost one and half years back, we organised an event called 'Saathrangi'. During that event, a health entrepreneur said that he will take two members of the transgender community and train them as OT technicians.
"Today Jiya Das is the first transgender OT technician in the country," said Mukherjee.
Jiya is treated at par with others in the hospital, he said at a panel discussion titled "South Asian Dialogue on LGBTQI Youth and Livelihood Discrimination" at the American Centre on Wednesday.
However, Ranjita Sinha, member of the West Bengal Transgender Board, said problems of the transgender community are getting confused with female issues.
"I respect all members of LGBTQI community but transgenders are always visible, hence they face discrimination and violence all the time. The census still is not clear on the transgender community and we are mixing our issues with female issues," said Sinha.
"The West Bengal Transgender Board is supported by the women and child development and social welfare board. I have no idea where the movement is heading," added Sinha.
An activist-cum-theatre personality Anurag Maitrayee said that there is politics between the privileged and non-privileged within the LGBTQ community.
To understand the pulse one has to step out and visit the interiors to know what the person actually feels.
"For transgender people, monetary exploitation in the field of art and entertainment is tremendous, which must be addressed. We are made to understand that we are at least getting some work," said Maitrayee.
Samarpan Maiti, who finished second runner-up at the Mr Gay World 2018, shared his ordeal and how he faced discrimination in reputed institutes of Kolkata.
The condition in rural areas is even worse.
"I have seen parents cutting all financial aid for a lesbian girl and not letting them continue their education out of fear that if they are financially independent they will not succumb to the pressures of getting married. They are forcibly married off," said Subhagata Ghosh, one of the founder members of Sappho for Equality, a Kolkata based 19 year old organisation working for lesbians and bisexual and transgender women.
She also mentioned that the condition in the rural and suburban regions is all the more difficult, citing the recent suicide of two girls amid some evidence that they were in love.
"Now in that village parents are trying to restrict all the girls from going to school thinking they would become vulnerable and do something like this," said Ghosh.
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
