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YOUR ADVOCATE
This week Your Advocate is Barrister Omar Khan Joy, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is the head of the chambers of a renoivned law firm, namely, 'Legal Counsel', which has expertise mainly in commercial law, corporate law, family law, employment and labor law, land law, banking law, constitutional law, criminal law, IPR and in conducting litigations before courts of different hierarchies. Our civil and criminal law experts from reputed law chambers will provide the legal summary advice.
Query I am a hermaphrodite and I live in Comilla. I am not educated as when I went to school, the children at school would not wish to sit with me and would always shun and avoid me. Even the parents of other children did not like the fact that I would go to the same school as their children. They filed complaints against me to the school authority so that 1 could not study there. Now that I am older, I cannot even go and use the public toilets as there are no toilets for my gender, people would beat me up if I use either the Male of Female toilets. From public toilets to public schools 1 had no place anywhere. I was wondering if there is any law to provide any solution to my distress. Am I not a rightful citizen of Bangladesh or what?
Ratna Rahman Comilla
Response I would like to thank you very much for your queries. From the fact it appears that you have been discriminated being a hermaphrodite who are unfortunately considered as a member of a marginalized and deprived community. As far as any legal solution is concerned, the state recognizes two sexes namely male and female. In consequence, people with physical impediments like yours arc not officially recognized although such transgender people constitute a socially recognized community in Bangladesh.
Being a citizen of Bangladesh, you are entitled to protections offered by the Constitution of Bangladesh in terms of equality and discrimination. The Constitution provides for equality to all the citizens along with equal protection. Moreover, discrimination on account of religion, race, caste, sex has also been prohibited. The Constitution also prohibits any restriction imposed on any citizen on account of religion, race, caste, sex with regard to admission to any educational institution and employment. From your given fact it appears that you have been deprived of such protections in terms of equality and discrimination as offered by our Constitution. You may consult a lawyer and file a Writ Petition before the Hon'ble High Court Division in that regard. Such step may be beneficial to the entire community as the Hon'ble High Court Division may issue rulings on concerned authorities asking them to take appropri-ate measure for the benefit of the community.
As the Constitution has empowered the State to make special provision for the advancement of the backward section of the community, the Government should consider the plight of the transgender people and recognize them as third gender officially so that they can enjoy same rights and entitlements as men and women. However, it is a good sign to observe that the situation has been changing albeit slowly. Gradually people are becoming aware of the stigmatized and impoverished life lead by the community and a change of mind-set is very much visible from the fact that films and motion pictures are being made depicting the misery and sufferings of transgender people along with a surge of other awareness raising activities like seminars, rallies, talk shows etc. Moreover, the Government has also made special allocation for such backward communities along with harijon and bedays in its latest budget for the current fiscal year. In addition, for the first time in the history of the country, the Government has taken a pilot project to enhance the skill of transgender people in order to bring them to the mainstream of the society.
It must be borne in our mind that people of the transgender community are normal human being like any of us. Therefore, we should try collectively not to prejudice them by way of raising awareness. The Government, NGOs, Givil Society, religious leaders and other concerned bodies can play an important role in this regard. I hope you will be benefited from the aforesaid opinion.
For detailed query contact: omar@legalcounselbd.com.