As the investigation into the caste and gender-based discrimination against renowned athlete Santhi Soundararajan continues, the Assistant Commissioner of the Tamil Nadu Police, G Harikumar, has come under fire for demanding a gender certificate from the athlete. Santhi, who won 12 international medals for the country, was appointed as a woman athletic coach in the Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority (TNSDA) in 2016.
A Dalit woman, Santhi had alleged caste-based and gender-based discrimination against her and her colleagues at the sports institute run by the Tamil Nadu government. Based on this, the National Commission of Scheduled Castes took up the matter and directed the Vepery police in Chennai to register a case and conduct an investigation in 2018. The investigation dragged on, and recently, she was called for by the Assistant Commissioner of Vepery range, G Harikumar, to give her statement on the case. Santhi alleged that the police officer asked her to produce a certificate to “prove” that she was a woman during the questioning.
The police officer’s action has drawn flak across the board. The southern regional representative of the National Council for Transgender Persons, Gopi Sundar, told IANS, “It is to be noted that the Supreme Court of India has declared through its judgment in the NALSA vs Union of India case that every person has the right to self identify their gender. Police or court has no right to question gender identity/expression.”
Trans woman activist, artist and public speaker Kalki Subramanian also came out heavily on the treatment meted out to Santhi. Kalki had said, “The lawmakers themselves are not following the law and he has no right to ask for the gender certificate. Will lodge a complaint against the concerned police officer with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the DGP of state police against this.”
According to a report in The Hindu, the issue has been referred to senior police officers.
Santhi was stripped off the silver medal she won at the 2006 Asian Games after failing a discriminatory ‘gender verification’ test, which states that women with high levels of testosterone cannot participate in women’s events. After this, Santhi alleged that a fellow coach, Rajan Abraham, had harassed and humiliated her, and hurled casteist abuses at her.
She was later employed on a contractual basis as a coach by the Tamil Nadu government. She resigned in 2010, citing low salary. She was then appointed as an athletic trainer in a permanent capacity with the state Sports Development Authority in 2016.
(With IANS inputs)