Govt erased ‘eunuch’ in 2017, but police remain unaware

Ahna Prakash | NT
Bengaluru

On July 17, the Halasuru police station registered an FIR against a real estate developer. The gender column in the FIR used the pejorative term ‘eunuch’ to identify the person. The literal meaning of the term is a man who has been castrated. This term caused controversy across India during the last decade.

Activists and people from the queer community have often pointed out that the word is offensive, discriminative and politically incorrect. Hence, in 2017, the Karnataka government issued a gazette notification, replacing the word ‘eunuch’ with ‘persons’ in the said section. However, the police officers and even the law ministry don’t seem to be aware of it.

When News Trail enquired about the usage of the word, officials at the Halasuru police station passed the blame to technical glitches. “The word comes in our FIR software, and this is a system-generated word. When the gender of the accused is not mentioned, the system automatically adds eunuch in the column,” said a police official.

Retired Assistant Commissioner Lava Kumar also says that this is not the fault of police stations but rather an issue with the system update. “It is a very derogatory word, and I think most police officers are aware of that. But the thing is, they do not manage software updates. The government should do something about this,” he said.

J C Madhuswamy, Minister of Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Legislation and Minor Irrigation of Karnataka, too appears to be unaware of the word’s usage. “What is this word? Is it derogatory?” he asked when News Trail contacted him.

In 2014, the Supreme Court mandated the use of the term ‘transgender’ while referring to people from the trans community. Since then, all the official documents are expected not to use derogatory words like eunuch.

Akkai Padmashali, a trans activist, said, “The usage of that word in the FIR copy is wrong. People of our community should be respected, and the term should be replaced with sexual minority or transgender. It is a right given to us by the supreme court itself,” she opines.

Praveen Sood, Director General of Police, Karnataka, promised to look into the issue. “I will correct the technical glitches,” he said.