Bengaluru: If everything falls in place, then the word ‘Eunuch’ will soon be obsolete soon, at least in the police circles of Karnataka.
The legislative assembly on Friday passed the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Bill-2016 to substitute the word ‘eunuchs’ with ‘persons’ under Section 36(A) of the Karnataka Police Act-1963, with the aim of creating sensitivity among the policemen while referring to transgenders in official records or otherwise.

The government’s move comes in the backdrop of a PIL filed in the high court by Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum, seeking deletion of Section 36(A) from the Karnataka Police Act – 1963, which they feel is ‘regressive’.

However, the government’s move to create sensitivity among the policemen does not seem to have convinced the community, which states that merely changing the word will not change the mindset of the police or reduce the detrimental effects of Section 36(A) on the community.

Section 36(A) of the Karnataka Police Act seeks to regulate the transgender community as it empowers the police commissioner to crackdown against ‘eunuchs’ who emasculate boys and commit unnatural offences. Karnataka has the highest transgender population (8,500 in the voters list) in the country, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

In fact, Section 36(A) was introduced in 2011 based on recommendation from former law secretary K R Chamayya, following reports of young boys being abducted or lured by transgender community.