13th November 2008 (Thursday), Calicut
Anything connected with sex is suppressed in Kerala. Morality has become an obsession with Kerala's societal attitude, cutting across the divides of class, gender, caste and religion. While in a majority of countries women can work and live as singles and contribute to social production, in Kerala, such people are largely isolated and kept aloof from the public sphere. The question of sexual rights occupies limited spaces of socio-political discourse in Kerala. The mainstream political parties here are yet to identify or acknowledge the politics of queer activism.
We seem to have reached a point that no political movement can move ahead unless the conspiracy of silence about sexuality is broken. The politics of sexuality cannot wait till all the problems related with globalization and unemployment are solved forever. We need to talk about sexual rights as we do about any other fundamental rights.
Kerala is one of the very few states in India where the CPI(M) has been most active over the years. It would be interesting to juxtapose this with the fact that in September 2003, All India Democratic Women's Association (the women's fraction of CPI(M)) had sent a note to the Indian Govt. to scrap IPC 377. But one doesn't seem to have reached its own cadres in Kerala even after 5 years.
Section 377 of IPC is challenged in the Delhi High Court and the final hearings are on now. Large scale sexual minority mobilizations took places in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata in the recent past demanding the repeal of IPC 377. This brought about enormous media coverage all over India but not in Kerala. While the Kerala Government is extremely keen reaching out to homosexual/bisexual men to use them for HIV prevention initiatives, one can clearly notice that there is absolute disregard for their human rights.
Hijras are visible and tolerated in most parts of India. Meanwhile, they are scared even to visit Kerala for a short-time. Most of the Keralite hijras migrate and live in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and other parts of India. They are forced to present themselves in male attire when they visit their families in Kerala.
Lesbians or gays or transgenders find it extremely difficult to have social space in Kerala. They are viewed as objects of curiosity and fun that attracts the media attention. There have been many an instances of lesbian suicides in Kerala over the years. The situation is such, that if they are to make a living, they would have to migrate to other states in India. The media mostly chooses to ignore such issues, preventing them from becoming a matter of public debate. Recent suicide of a gay couple in Ernakulam attracted very little media coverage. Most progressive groups in Kerala too ignored this.
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