To bring third gender in the national mainstream the Government should provide them with reservations in jobs. The first eunuch MlA, Shabnam Mausi made this observation while interacting with The Pioneer on Friday.
Mausi created history in the year 2002 when she was elected from Shahdol assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh and became first transgender to achieve this feat. She said that the judiciary of the country was kind enough to recognize eunuchs as third gender and gave them voting rights now it is time for the government to come forward and offer them reservation in jobs so that the social stigma associated with this deprived section is gradually removed.
Mausi opined that the perception of the society is changing towards third gender but this change is too slow. Narrating her bitter experience she said, “I was verbally abused by other members of assembly and they taunted me regularly. On one occasion I lost my cool and beat up one minister belonging to congress party with slippers in the assembly. People elected me to the assembly but my achievement didn’t go down well with established politicians’’.
Mausi said that apart from giving reservations the Government should provide such an atmosphere so that people belonging to third gender get a chance to get educated. She said that it is unfortunate that people tend to disown their children when they realize that they belong to third gender.
Awareness is needed to be created in the society that such people should be treated like normal ones and allowed to be lived in the society. Mausi, who lives in a temple in Anoopur town of Madhya Pradesh has dedicated herself totally to the social service.
“I fight for the rights of common and downtrodden section of the society and would continue to do so till rest of my life,’’ she said. On the question of incidences of Eunuchs demanding large sums of money from people on the occasion like child birth, marriage and construction of new house, Mausi said that there is nothing wrong in it as it is only source of living for them.
She, however, said that incidences of forcing people to pay the Bakshish is wrong and added that many beggars and bad elements disguise themselves as eunuchs and demand Bakshish.