Gender no bar  

Context: The Kerala High Court order allowing the enrolment of trans-persons in the National Cadet Corps (NCC) is a significant step towards gender inclusion and equality.

Background:

• The court was responding to a petition filed last year by a transwoman, Hina Haneefa, who was refused admission to the NCC unit in a Thiruvananthapuram college.
• NCC Act, 1948 only allows members of the male sex and the female sex to be enrolled as cadets.

Centre’s Stand:

• The Centre reasoned that the NCC aimed to provide young people an environment that prepared them for a career in the armed forces, where roles and training are sometimes gender-specific due to the difference in physical, biological and psychological aspects.
• It also took recourse to the argument that admission of transwomen, especially when they have not undergone gender reassignment surgeries, in common spaces such as toilets and sleeping areas would risk the safety and privacy of women cadets.

Kerala High Court’s Stand:

• We cannot take recourse to the outdated provisions of a 1948 enactment to deal with the realities of life in the year 2021.
• It upheld the petitioner’s contention that such an entry bar was discriminatory, and violated the rights of equality and personal liberty, among others, guaranteed to citizens by the Constitution.
• The court pointed out that while admission to the NCC was once a male preserve, the law had been modified later to include women.
• It must now shed provisions that exclude trans-people.
• The judge based her reasoning on the landmark 2014 Nalsa v Union of India judgment that not only recognises the rights of transgender people, but, more radically, gives primacy to the freedom of an individual to decide their gender identity for themselves.
• It also directed the government to amend the law and to provide guidelines for enrolling trans persons in the NCC.

Conclusion:

• The trans-rights movement is not only about expanding public spaces and institutions to include a much-stigmatised minority, but it is also vital to a redefinition of patriarchal ideas about gender and sexuality.
• In recognising the government responsibility to provide full and effective participation of transgender persons in institutions like the NCC, the HC lives up to the progressive spirit of the Nalsa judgment.

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/kerala-transpersons-ncc-enrolment-7233167/