From cheap snide remarks, taunts and lewd
comments, of the neighbours and passers-by lesbian women face harsh
violence by family and/or community members.
Raj Thackeray’s recent hate-speech against North-Indians who have moved
to Mumbai has highlighted the issue of migration, yet again. The focus,
as usual has been largely on the male migrant — who has been coming
seeking employment; even though women have always been present in
migratory flows. Some of the migration of women has been, and is,
‘tied’ — ie as dependents who move along with their husbands, fathers
and sons.
However, increasingly, women are migrating to be the breadwinner of the
family or for educational and other opportunities. Another less
documented reason for their migration is to escape from certain forms
of oppression and even persecution.
Persecution, that in many instances is unleashed due to their religious
beliefs and faith; as evident from the outflow of Muslims from Gujarat
after the pogroms of 2002. In other cases, the reasons are even more
invisible and totally off the radar. This is the forced migration of
women due to their sexual/gender identity. These are women who do not
conform to heterosexual norms of loving, living and marriage.
Women, who are attracted to other women, and who may or may not
identify themselves as lesbians or as bisexual women. Women who would
rather be men. Women who are “different” and, we more powerful in our
inability to respect and celebrate differences — especially differences
that threaten our comfortable status-quo — persecute them.
In a society that is hypocritical, narrow and hostile to those who
refuse to toe the given line on sexual behaviour and gender identity,
sexual minorities are repeatedly exposed to serious and widespread
violation of their rights.
Further in a patriarchal social order, women are further silenced and
oppressed and even when they choose to adopt a male identity;
redemption is not theirs.
Far removed from the stereotypical images of sexual minorities as being
Westernised urban and upper-class, these women come from myriad class,
caste and religious backgrounds — and are often grappling with multiple
discriminations. For working class women, the battle is made more
difficult due to their lack of access to a range of resources and
privileges; and the fact that there are very few spaces that seek to
address their complex interrelated needs.
The women who spoke to me have spoken of the pressures of living double
lives and carrying the burdens of guilt, fear, confusion and
unhappiness. They are labelled as “evil”, as “deviants” as “perverts”
and often forced to end their relationships. They have narrated
innumerable incidences of the violence that has been targeted at them
on a daily basis — for being “unusual” women. From cheap snide remarks,
taunts and lewd comments, of the neighbours and passers-by; to
restrictions on their mobility and emotional blackmail by family
members, to harsh physical torture and violence by family and/or
community members. The archaic legal instruments become yet another
weapon for the state to beat them with; so police and lawyers often
sanctimoniously invoke the law to harass and torture them.
So they often survive by denying their feelings, their thoughts, their
ideas themselves. It is only when driven to deep desperation and fear
of losing limb and life that some of them flee their towns and
villages, seeking asylum in the metropolis. Bangalore has become one
destination for many of them from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and other
surrounding regions.
They come here seeking safety, support and acceptance; they come
bearing great courage and grit. The migration is often sudden and a
last resort measure. They come as refugees, who have uprooted
themselves from everything that is familiar, due to the fact that their
“terrible secret” now stands revealed. Besides feeling lost and
vulnerable in Bangalore; they confront a series of basic survival
issues.
Issues of housing, of employment, of health. And they are unfamiliar
with Bangalore. For women who arrive without male “protectors” the
problems are manifold. Unlike most other migrants, they mostly travel
alone or as a pair of women — with no relatives, or clan members to
provide even a temporary safety net.
What then is the beacon that beckons them to risk so much and travel to
Bangalore? It is the presence of other women, who have trod this path
before; who have wrestled with identity issues, and have started to
articulate their rights, their dreams, and their desires. It is also
the knowledge that there are groups like LesBit and organisations like
Sangama to offer support, understanding; to champion their rights,
provide them space and make central to their work the concerns of these
women who are forging new paths. Paths that allow them to walk free,
tall and proud. The questions for us are, do we have it in us to allow
this to happen? Are we willing to paint a more nuanced picture of a
phenomena like migration?
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar12008/panorama2008022954903.asp
