by Rupam Jain

 

Thirty-year-old Tista Das will vote for the first time on 27 April (third phase of Assembly election) from Ward No. 8, booth 47. A resident of Mahajati Nagar, Agarpara, Tista is a little old to be a first-time voter. This is her story.

In Calcutta University one day, Sushanto Das asked a guard there where the toilet was. He was shown the “ladies” toilet. Some understood, others didn’t. “His parents were hostile, he had to be shifted from one place to another for shelter,” says Shantiranjan Basu, a retired advocate cast out by his son for helping people like Sushanto. Thirty-year-old Sushanto Das is now Tista Das.

“Though I had a very masculine name, I always felt trapped in a man’s body. I felt incomplete and wanted to align my body with my psyche.”

Tista is the first and only transsexual in the city to have a voters’ ID card. She underwent a sex-change operation on 9 May, 2004 coinciding with her birthday. “I insisted that I be operated on this day. I wanted a rebirth and this was it,” she says.

There are, however, others like her — Manabi and Sohini Bagchi, but they do not have either have voters’ ID cards or ration cards.

Nandini of Southern Avenue (who committed suicide more than a decade ago) was the first to undergo a sex change in Kolkata, followed by Manabi, Tista and Sohini, but Tista stands out.

Her struggle began when she voiced her opinion that she wanted to be a woman because she felt like a woman. “My family was against me, they did not support my decision but I chose to fight because I understand that everybody is a victim of society. I was young and the trauma began affecting my studies. I changed colleges and finally completed my graduation through correspondence from Bethune College.” Tista is now a complete woman and a look at her will confirm this fact. “My fight was fought alone, but I must say that my friends have always supported me,” she says. “First I got my ration card and then started running around to get a voters’ ID card and finally I got it on 15 July 2005.”

Though she has a voters’ ID card now, her certificates still bear the name Sushanto. “A case against the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is still going on with regard to my change of name on my birth certificate, and I will hopefully also get my college certificates bearing the name Tista.” She has also applied for a passport.

Dr Shila Rohatgi, who operated on Tista, said: “She is a fighter and so she is the only one to have a voters’ ID. She alone could do this.” Presently working as a project co-ordinator for Transgenders Voices Inc, an American organisation, Tista balances her work and passion ~ cinema, and like any other celebrity she had been approached by the Left Front to campaign for elections in Durgapur, but she refused. “I have nothing to do with politics. I will vote simply to prove that I have voted as a woman and I am a woman.”

 

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Beyond reflections

A DOCUMENTARY FILM ON SEXUAL REASSIGNMENT  SURGERY

 

Basic Premise:

 

The dominant liberal feminism of the 1970s de-emphasized gender differences, claiming that women were the equals of men and that this would be obvious if only they were offered the same opportunities as men with no special privileges necessary. On the other hand, cultural feminists claimed that women's unique perspective and talents must be valued, intentionally emphasizing the differences between men and women. However post-modern feminism questions the very origins of gender, sexuality, and bodies. According to post-modernism, the emphasis or de-emphasis of difference by cultural and liberal feminists is meaningless, because the difference itself and the categories difference creates are social constructions.

 

It is here that postmodern feminism (study by Dr. Fausto-Sterling) depicts this social construction in a unique manner; it illustrates the role of science in the construction of gender, sex, and bodies. There are three main ways in which science aids in the social construction of sex: first, new surgical technology allows doctors to literally construct genitalia; second, socially accepted biases affect the way scientists design, carry out, and analyze experiments and results; and third, bodies can be physically changed by the social conditions of their environment.

 

The film ‘Beyond reflections’ explores the social and medical ethics of trans- gender sex operations. Today the medical sciences have the power to grant freedom to a male mind trapped in a female body and vice versa. But in a society caught up in complex cultural-economic issues, the surgeons find themselves facing a dilemma. Will the Transsexual already facing social and legal sanctions be further condemned by the medical community?

 

Umesh Bist

Email Umesh 

09881014851(Delhi), 09833495414(Mumbai)

 

 

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Photos of Tista from the set of "Beyond Reflections":

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we see Tista with filmmaker Umesh Bist