'Patriarchy Doesn't Care for Women, Forget Us': Sole Maharashtra Trans Candidate

A conversation with Shameebha Patil, the only transgender candidate in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

'Patriarchy Didn't Care for Women, Forget Us': Maharashtra's Sole Trans Candidate

(Photo: Shameebha Patil)

"In my village, there are only three votes of my community — mine, my guru's, and my friend's. So, why would any politician care to come to us to ask for votes? What difference do three votes make to them? Politics of people like me does not matter to any party," said Shameebha Patil, as she was walking through the fifth village of her constituency amid her ongoing campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

Donning a cotton saree and bindi, it was the fifth village in Jalgaon's Raver she was canvassing since the evening, and had another 'nukkad sabha' to address in the next one. A mob of 400-500 people usually follows her to every village that she goes to.

Maharashtra's first transgender candidate to be fielded in an Assembly election by any mainstream political party — the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi — Patil has been taking the two key opponents of hers from Raver, both men, head on over alleged failures to address the issues of Raver's voters.

(Photo: Shameebha Patil)

"Where I am contesting from, there is the Congress claiming secular politics on one side, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is claiming 'sabka saath, sabka vikas' on the other. Those candidates have lots of money and muscle power. A transgender candidate like me will never meet those credentials," Patil said.

"But what stands by me is the work I have done for the people in various sectors for the past 15 years," she said.

As Maharashtra is set to vote on 20 November, stakes are high for the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the Opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). But while both alliances and their parties have spoken about the need for more initiatives to bring the transgender community into the mainstream, neither have fielded a candidate from the community this election.

But not just the transgenders, the queer community as a whole is lacking political representation and support despite Section 377 being decriminalised in India six years ago, says Patil.

'I Was the Same Person for the People Before, I am the Same Now'

A post-graduate in Marathi literature and a visiting faculty at Mumbai's Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Patil has been an active social worker since 2007 when she was in college. "I have been working for the people since the time I identified as a man," she said.

Over the years, Patil has worked with several organisations like the Sarva Seva Sangh and the Lok Sangarsh Morcha, and belongs to the Leva community.

For the Patil campaign, however, the issues go way beyond her own community and her identity as a transgender.

Shameebha Patil with VBA chief Dr Prakash Ambedkar.

(Photo: Shameebha Patil)

"Why is it called the third gender? I have an objection to that. Who decided what gender comes first, second, or third? The patriarchy did," she said.

Asked about the reception from voters, Patil said that the positivity that the people have towards her is because of her work.

"Given my work of the past 15 years, I was the same person for the people then and I am the same now. The people that stood by me then are also standing by me now. The section of the society that stands with me today is vanchit (deprived). They are farmers, Adivasis, SCs, Muslims, micro-OBCs. These are the people who have only been seen as vote banks in this constituency till date," she said.

For Patil, issues of banana farmers, bogus admissions of Adivasis in government jobs, irrigation facilities for all farmers, Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, due compensation against crop damage, better schools for children, and creation of jobs for Raver's youth are the key issues.

"First, I am an Ambedkarite. Second, I have always been on the ground. I talk for all communities. All these factors have given me the appreciation that I have today. I have not paid people to come for my rallies. There are so many aspects of my campaign that are crowd funded. Such initiatives by people make me proud of what I have achieved so far," she said.

But speaking in the 'larger scheme of things' about her candidature as a transgender, Patil has several grievances with political parties across the spectrum, "especially from the ones that made lots of tall promises."

'Parties Only Use Transgenders for Image Building, Sentimental Value'

Ahead of the upcoming elections, a few promises have been made by several parties.

In its common election manifesto released by the MVA , comprising of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCPSP), and Shiv Sena (UBT) this week, there are several significant promises for the queer community with the aim to make them "a part of the mainstream."

Some of the key promises include:

• Reservation for LGBTQIA+ individuals in government jobs and implement a special scholarship scheme for their education. 

• Form a new advisory committee under the Law Commission to address the specific needs of the LGBTQIA+ community and take steps to amend and reform relevant laws. 

• Establish dedicated health and counselling centres to address the mental and health challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community. 

• Set up special facilities for skill training to create livelihood opportunities for LGBTQIA+ individuals.

• Formulate an inclusive policy for employment to ensure opportunities for differently-abled and LGBTQIA+ individuals across all sectors

The VBA, meanwhile, has similar promises in its manifesto.

• 1 percent reservation for the transgender community in education and jobs.

• Scholarships and seats in universities for government education.

• Free sex change surgeries in government hospitals.

• Free housing under government's housing schemes.

• Monthly allowance for transgender persons aged 40 and above

• Free skill development initiatives, financial support to start small businesses.

• Free medium to higher education for transgenders and queer community, with assistance to move abroad.

The BJP manifesto, meanwhile, also has one line on "streamlining efforts to bring the transgender community to the mainstream."

Shameebha Patil at a party rally.

(Photo: Shameebha Patil)

Patil, however, said that she does not expect any party other than Vanchit to stand true to their promises.

"Devendra Fadnavis announced the formation of a transgender welfare board. The government that formed in 2019 activated it. But that committee has no initiatives other than registration of Aadhaar cards, election cards, and ration cards," Patil said.

"Even under the central government's policies, transgenders get national identity documents on the National Transgender Portal. But on that portal, there is nothing beyond giving identity documents. There are no schemes or welfare ideas to bring us into the mainstream," Patil said.

Speaking about the Opposition parties, she said: "So many of these parties have LGBTQIA+ cells. Beyond votes and having us around for sentimental values, these parties don't do anything."

"It is all about playing with emotions. They act as mere sympathisers and we don't want sympathisers. I don't want sympathy and donations, I want empathy and dignity, I want rights and respect," she said.

'Inclusion is About Doing Much More than Just Giving Candidature': NCPSP

Speaking to The Quint, India's first gay national spokesperson of a mainstream political party and NCPSP national spokesperson Anish Gawande lauded Patil's candidature. Gawande was a part of the team that formulated promises for the queer community in the MVA manifesto.

Asked why the party or any of the MVA partners had not fielded any queer candidate, Gawande said:

"I think representation is only one part of the solution. There needs to be consultation alongside representation. The manifesto preparation committee of the MVA included stakeholder discussions with every single sector of society from specially abled folks, LGBTQIA+ community, senior citizens, Dalits, Muslims, and Adivasi communities. So, in a very direct way, this manifesto is a result of a much longer consultative process which has included a lot more queer voices than a single seat or a candidate could represent."

Anish Gawande is the national spokesperson for the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar.

(Photo: ANish Gawande)

"That being said, the VBA has consistently demonstrated the representation of LGBTQIA+ rights not only by fielding candidates, but also by giving opportunities to prominent leaders like Disha Pinki Sheikh and they have to be duly commended for those efforts," Gawande added.

While stressing on the need of laws for the queer community and recognition of union between two queer individuals, Gawande said: "Reservation in jobs has been a long-standing demand of the transgender community. This has also been granted not by a political discourse but by the Nalsa verdict of the Supreme Court of India. This is an obligation on the state and the central government to ensure that reservation is granted to a broad umbrella of transgender persons."

'Is the Indian Society Ready to Elect Queer Representatives?'

In Raver, Shameebha Patil is up against two political heavyweights — Amol Jawale of the BJP, son of former MLA Amol Jawale, and Dhananjay Chaudhari of the Congress, son of sitting MLA Shirish Chaudhari.

While Patil believes she is giving a very tough fight to both, is India ready to elect a queer representative beyond the urban-elite settings?

Both Patil and Gawande believe it is.

"It is a 100% ready," stressed Gawande.

Shameebha Patil addressing an event.

(Photo: Shameebha Patil)

"Shameeba Patil is not fighting from a uber-urban setting but from a largely rural setting. I have been doing rallies not just in the most urban elite constituencies of the state but across the length and breadth of the state from Vidarbha to Western Maharashtra to the outskirts of Mumbai. So, not only are people ready for queer candidates, but I don't think there is any concern around the electability or winnability of queer candidates either. And the quicker the political parties realise this, the better it will be for their own political prospects," he said.

Patil, meanwhile, firmly believes that her work goes way beyond her gender identity.

"Forget transgenders, in a patriarchal society like ours, how much of women's representation do you have? If you take a look at the 288 constituencies, how many women have been fielded? We are in 2024 and still women are not given the adequate and rightful 50 percent representation that they deserve. So, people like me are already too much of a micro-minority to be considered politically important," Patil said.

"But for me, it will come down to the work I have done over the years," she said.