The victim has alleged that while travelling in the women’s compartment, DMRC staff would come up and ask her to move to the general coach.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO
A 33-year-old transwoman has alleged harassment by Delhi Metro staff and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel on multiple occasions, adding that she has been shouted at for standing in the woman’s queue at stations.
Hayathi, a resident of Munirka who moved to the Capital last November from Visakhapatnam, told Today News 24 that the latest incident happened at the Shastri Park metro station.
“On multiple occasions, both male and female security personnel have shouted at me for standing in the women’s queue and asked me to stand in the men’s line. This happened even after I showed them my government ID that clearly mentions I am a woman.”
Ms. Hayathi said CISF personnel also asked her to “dress like a woman”. “They insisted that I grow my hair and wear a bindi and bangles.”
“But why should I have to change my gender expression for them?”
She said that even on entering the women’s compartment in trains, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) staff would come up and ask her to move to the general coach.
“They would shout from afar and me ask why, as a man, am I boarding the women’s compartment. It would make me feel so small and affect my confidence,” added Ms. Hayathi.
‘Mocked by officials’
At one point of time, she decided to take up the matter with senior officials of the CISF and sensitise them on this issue. “On approaching the CISF unit at Shastri Park, I was mocked and asked to leave the premises. As soon as they heard the term ‘transgender’, they said that they can not do anything for a single woman.”
The aspiring photographer said this bias against the LGBTQ community has demoralised her and she has virtually stopped taking the metro. On occasions when she had no choice but to take the train, she felt “extremely anxious and jittery”.
‘Serious need for sensitisation’
Ms. Hayathi insists that DMRC premises and other public spaces that require security checking should have separate queues for transgender, non-binary and/or gender non-conforming people, and the personnel doing the inspection in these queues should be of a similar identity.
She also requested that authorities allocate at least four seats to transgender women, non-binary and/or gender non-conforming people in the women’s coach and two such seats in every general compartment.
“There is a serious need for sensitisation of CISF, DMRC and other officials, so that people like us who do not adhere to the socially-acceptable forms of gender expression are not traumatised on a regular basis”.
When reached out for comment, the DMRC did not respond.
