Transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi with Swami Agnivesh in the Capital. Transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi with Swami Agnivesh in the Capital.

The transgender community in the country believes there is a long way to go before Indian society recognises them even one year after the Supreme Court's landmark judgment, which created a third gender status for the community.

"A year has passed but the plight of our community remains the same. There are few places where our gender has been recognised but still a lot of work needs to be done," says Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, a transgender activist.

Members of the transgender community, including Tripathi, participated in the anniversary celebrations of the apex court's judgment at Jantar Mantar in the Capital on Wednesday. The occasion also saw them pledging their eyes to the Eye Bank Association of India.

"Eyes do not discriminate, the perspective and perception of people do. We have decided to pledge our eyes as a thank you gesture to Justices A.K. Sikri and K.S. Radhakrishnan who had passed the landmark judgement," Tripathi said.

"The third gender category has been recognised in certain legal documents in certain states but where is the recognition for us in hospitals and in education institutions? In hospitals they don't know where to put us. There are no separate bathrooms for us. Such issues need to be looked into," says Amitava Sarkar a transgender activist from Kolkata.

The apex court had asked the states to construct special public toilets and departments to look into special medical issues related to transgenders, according to its order on April 15 last year. The apex court had also asked the Centre to treat the community as socially and economically backward.

The UGC had also notified transgenders as the third gender in July last year to make them eligible for scholarship schemes and fellowship programmes in higher educational institutions.

However, Sarkar feels that discrimination can only be stopped if children can be taught the difference between all the three genders in school. "The problem is at the grassroot level. If children can be taught about different sexual orientations of all the three genders then there will be no dropouts of such children or individuals from schools or colleges. We can pursue our dream of higher studies and make a living," Sarkar said.

Abhina Aher, chairperson of the South Asian transgender community says the need of the hour is to spread awareness about the rights and facilities available for the transgender community, including reaching out to those who have not yet come out. "You have us but you don't want to accept us. A total of 40,90,000 people are registered as third gender in the Census because they have come out and identified themselves," Aher says. "Corporates too should come forward and give us an opportunity to work with them," she says.

Tripathi has urged the government to open a dialogue with the community on issues like education, health, medical facilities, equal opportunity to work and proper census.