In Tamil Nadu, there has been a growing movement demanding for horizontal reservation for transgender people, which takes into account caste inequalities among the community.
Over a year since Justice MS Ramesh of the Madras High Court ‘strongly’ recommended that the Tamil Nadu government provide a specified percentage of special reservation for the transgender community in public employment, there has been no remedial action taken by the administration to address this need.
The Trans Rights Now Collective had filed an appeal in this case and members of the collective were also staging protests in Chennai earlier today when cops arrived on site and began roughing up the protestors and detained a few of them. Prominent activist, Grace Banu, is reportedly one among them.
These protests have been growing since the collective brought to light the stories of 6 transgender folx who have qualified for government jobs, but whose applications were not being processed towards an employment offer. Despite being allowed to write the examinations and qualifying for a police job, the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Service Recruitment Board has rejected 5 of these candidates; the sixth has been disqualified from a teaching job. This is despite the relaxations prescribed by the court, which also issued an interim order to create a vacant post for the candidates.
At present, the Tamil Nadu state government offers reservations to trans persons under the Most Backward Class (MBC) category. Those trans persons belonging to the SC/ST community are given reservations under those categories. The Collective is demanding horizontal reservation so that withing the reservation for transgender persons, caste inequalities can be accounted for.