THE KARNATAKA government on Tuesday took a major step and announced reservation for ‘male third gender’ in recruitment to the state armed forces.
State Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Tuesday informed that the process to recruit constables to fill 3,484 posts in the Karnataka Armed Forces has begun.
“For the first time in the state, 79 posts have been reserved for the ‘male third gender’,” he said as quoted by the news agency, PTI.
Meanwhile, the transgender activists hailed the move to provide quota. “I welcome the decision,” Karnataka ‘Rajyotsava’ awardee Akkai Padmashali, a transgender and founder of ‘Ondede’ which works for transgenders’ welfare said.
The queer activist said the announcement is “a mainstreaming of the third gender” but added, “there is no third gender called ‘Male Third Gender’.”
“What I understand from their (government) point of view is that probably, they are referring to the ‘female to male transformed transgender man’,” Padmashali said.
Minister Jnanendra mentioned that out of the total vaccancies, 420 posts have been reserved for candidates from ‘Kalyana Karnataka’ region or the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region, with 11 of them for the ‘male third gender’.
For the rest of Karnataka, recruitment will be held to 3,064 posts, of which 68 are reserved for the ‘male transgender’, Jnanendra added.
He further informed that the recruitment will be conducted in the “most transparent manner”, adding that the last date for submitting the form online is October 31, 2022.
Meanwhile, talking further about the situation of transgenders, Padmashali stated, “Even if someone wants to go to the police department, then it requires certain qualifications. Here most of us transgenders are illiterate and school dropouts — not even passed 10th standard, forget the (college) degree. There are so many nuances behind it.”
There is also a need to understand various “cultural identities and diversity of existence” within the transgender community such as ‘Jogappa’, ‘Marla’, ‘Jogta’, ‘Shakti’, and ‘Akka’, Padmashali pointed out.
Moreover, the activist also urged to the government to conduct an ‘immediate survey’ to understand the community better and set up a ‘Transgender Welfare Board’ to promote their well-being.
(With inputs from PTI)
