New ID, old photograph

Last February, Neel Ghosh, 28, who is a member of the West Bengal Transgender Welfare Board, updated his Aadhaar card and PAN card —he changed his gender to male, and his name to Neel on both.

Ghosh identifies as a transman and began to medically transition in 2015. However, while he was able to change his details, his photograph on the updated Aadhaar card remains the same as the one on his old card. Fortunately for him, only name, date of birth and gen- der are considered ‘demographic details’ that must necessarily match for the two cards to be linked.

Despite correct details, the Aadhaar can’t be used as a photo identity card if the photograph is of the person’s previous identity. “Many transgender persons live with their families and cannot dress according to their self-identified gender when getting these ID cards made. Our patriarchal, transphobic society which denies them selfhood, also compounds the problem,” explained Ghosh.

According to the UIDAI (the issuing authority) website, photographs cannot be updated on the Aadhaar card either through the Self Service Update Portal or by using the post. start-ups and entrepreneurs”. The policy furthermore, promised to “unleash regulatory enablers for supporting startups” registered in Bihar not prior to five years and with an annual turnover not exceeding ₹25 crore.

Prasad submitted an idea: NaachBaaja.com, a performers aggregating platform for transgender persons, men and women. The Bihar government released a list of 32 selected ideas in October. Prasad’s was one of them. Preetesh Anand, treasurer of the Bihar Entrepreneurs Association, a not-for-profit organisation that helps first-time entrepreneurs raise a business, remembers being impressed with her idea right off the bat.

“It will help create sustainable development for this community. We think of song and dance as ‘kala’, but when members of the transgender community dance or sing, we don’t associate it with ‘kala’. This business has the power to change social perception,” he said.

Anand helped Prasad create a business plan and even attempted to register her company. But once again, the lack of a PAN card in the correct gender put a spanner in the works. To receive the financial grant of ₹10 lakh from Startup Bihar, Prasad needs to register her company. To do that, she needs to create a Digital Signature Certificate on the website of the ministry of corporate affairs, for which both PAN card and Aadhaar are needed. The mismatch between the two has made it impossible for her to obtain this certificate, and register a company.

MIS-GENDERED BY STATE

The matter is one of urgency, experts in the field say, for till such an order is passed, or correction made by the IT department, transgender persons will also continue to face the ignominy of being mis-gendered. Prasad is being misidentified as ‘male’ by his PAN card. Oinam Yambung, a transman in Imphal, will soon be mis-gendered as ‘female’ on both his identity cards. The 39-year-old advocacy officer with SAATHII, a nongovernmental organisation that works on access to quality HIV/AIDS services in India, had made an Aadhaar card which stated his transgender identity. When he applied for a PAN card, he ticked ‘male’ in the application form, as there wasn’t any transgender/third gender column. Last year, he found that he could not register on the income tax website because of the gender mismatch between his PAN card and Aadhaar card. So, he returned to the Aadhaar card help centre and asked for a change in gender to male, as he is a masculine-identifying person. “The people at the centre told me, ‘How can we change the gender to ‘male’ in your card? You’re born a woman.’ They didn’t know that Nalsa judgment clearly specifies that gender is based on self-determination,” said Yambung. He was forced to apply to change the gender on both his identity cards to ‘female’, even though that is not how he identifies.

“(When this is over) I will sensitise the persons at the Aadhaar centre. I’ll tell them, I am also a man. I have the right thanks to the Nalsa judgment. So why are you not able to understand me?” said Yambung.

RECOURSE OPTIONS

In August 2017, Prasad had written an application to the Patna office of the commissioner of income tax (admin and TPS), which was forwarded to the headquarters of the principal director general of income tax (systems), based in New Delhi on August 16, 2017.

The following month, a Gujarat-based non-governmental organisation Lakshya Trust appealed to the office of the chief commissioner of income tax in Vadodara requesting for “an inclusion of a column for transgenders in the application form for obtaining PAN Card.”

Lakshya Trust runs a project titled ‘Wajood’, which among other things, helps transgender persons apply for ID cards like PAN and Aadhaar. The letter was forwarded to New Delhi office on September 27, 2017. Neither has received any response since then.

Hindustan Times sent an email to Central Board of Direct Taxes with a list of questions: The PAN card application form does not have third gender column. Are there any plans in the offing to do so?; as a result of the rule that mandates giving of Aadhaar number (or enrolment number) while filing ITR, what provisions have been made for transgender persons with gender mismatch on different legal documents?; if introducing a third column is a technical matter, which organisation is responsible for getting it done, and what would be the time-frame within which they will get this done?

A spokesperson responded, “We are looking into the matter, but cannot issue a statement right now.”

“I’ve tried everything,” said Prasad.