Haleema*, a 14 year old transsexual boy belonging to the Muslim Scheduled Caste community, was decoyed by a transgender cartel and forced into sex work on the pretext of getting his sex-change operation done.
Haleema hails from Kalimetupatti near Utthamapalayam in Theni district. Last week he was at the Dindigul bus stand when two transgender persons named Sathya and Aparna working for another transgender named Sona had approached him. They had interacted with him and took his mobile phone number. Two days later, they had called Haleema and enticed him to come to Trichy under the pretext of getting his sex-change operation done earlier.
Haleema started for Trichy on November 25 and had gone to the place where Sathya, Aparna and Sona were living. They had told Haleema that they would get his sex-change operation done in the next six months but he had refused as he came to know that sex-change operation could be done only after one attains 15 years of age. Later, they forced him to drink alcohol and had threatened to attack him if he didn’t. They had called his parents and asked them to file a police complaint through a transgender in Theni stating that Haleema went missing.
At around 7 PM that day, they had taken Haleema to the Samayapuram highway for sex work. They had collected ₹500 from a male ‘customer’ and made Haleema do oral sex to him. When Haleema had questioned them about making him do all this, they had told him that they have an NGO named TGCANE under their control through which they will get be able to get away.
The next day Haleema escaped from their place and managed to back to his parents. He had narrated these details in a letter addressed to the National Council for Transgender Persons, a copy of which The Commune has accessed.
Speaking on the matter, intersex activist Gopi Shankar Madurai who is also the southern region representative in the National Council for Transgender Persons said that the way the Childline handled this complaint was very insensitive. “They need to be more sensitive towards handling the cases related to non-binary, gender non-conforming and transsexual children.”, Gopi said.
He also added that neither the District Collector nor the Trichy Commissioner of Police were responsive towards this issue.
“We have asked the concerned authorities to register a complaint. The Kollidam D4 police station is not registering this sensitive complaint which comes under POCSO. The Commissioner is also not responding.” Gopi said.
@TrichyPolice Sir a 14 year old transsexual boy has been forced to prostitution in Trichy, a complaint is being tried to be lodged at D4 Police Station without much success. Could you please take it up as a matter of urgent concern?
— sunitha krishnan (@sunita_krishnan) November 27, 2020
(* name changed)