Police crackdown worries Bangalore eunuch
Vasanthi Hariprakash
Sunday, November 16, 2008, (Bangalore)
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080072786&ch=11/16/2008%2011:38:00%20AM (http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080072786&ch=11/16/2008%2011:38:00%20AM)
Bangalore has recently seen reports of transgenders facing eviction in large numbers. While the police says, it is a crackdown on crimes on the street, the Hijra community feels that it is being targeted without reason.
"We were born in Karnataka, why can't we live in Karnataka? The owner asked us to leave immediately, right then, where can we go immediately," said Keerthi, a transgender.
The police seem convinced that the transgenders are aiding crime in the city.
QuoteWhen Ramesh agreed to see six of the activists, including a representative of the Garment and Textile Workers Union, he told them, "We are asked by the senior officials to beat them [the hijras] up. We will not release them even if you go to the chief minister. We have orders from senior officials to round up all hijras on the streets of Bangalore and book them under extortion cases."
Earlier that same day, the newspaper Mumbai Daily Advance and Analysis reported that Bengalore's deputy chief of police for the city's south district, S. Rati, had launched "a new drive against the eunuch menace."
When the activist delegation questioned the legality of such an order, the assistant commissioner shouted, "Arrest these people and beat them up!" The defenseless delegation was then attacked by a half-dozen policemen led by Ramesh himself, who brutally beat the activists with fists and lathis and then shoved them into lockup.
http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20196770&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=569346&rfi=6 (http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20196770&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=569346&rfi=6)
Isn't Bangalore where so many US call center jobs are being transferred?