Chennai, Feb 28 (BPNS)

An assistant commissioner of Tamil Nadu police has drawn flak for asking gender certificate from renowned athletes from the state Santhi Soundararajan.

The athlete who won 12 international medals for the country was appointed as a woman athletic coach in the Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority.

Santhi Soundararajan had alleged caste-based and gender-based discrimination against her by her colleagues at the sports institute run by the Tamil Nadu government.

The National Commission of Scheduled Castes took up the matter and directed the Vepery police in Chennai to register a case and conduct an investigation in 2018. The investigation dragged on and recently she was called for by the Assistant Commissioner of Veperi range, G. Harikumar to give her statement on the case. Santhi alleged that the police officer during the conduct of the investigation asked her to produce a certificate stating that she was a female.

The action of the police officer has drawn flak from across the spectrum and the southern regional representative of the national council for transgender person, Gopi Sundar while speaking to BPNS said, “ It is to be noted that the Supreme Court of India has declared through its judgment in the case NALSA vs Union of India that every person has the right to self identify their gender. Police or court has no right to question gender identity /expression.”

Transgender woman activist and cultural icon and public speaker, Kalki Subramanian also came out heavily on the treatment meted out to Santhi Soundararajan. While speaking to BPNS, Kalki said, “ The lawmakers themselves are not following the law and he has no right to ask for the gender certificate. Will lodge complaint against the concerned police officer with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the DGP of Tamil Nadu police against this.”