Chennai: A police officer received flak for demanding a gender certificate from athlete Santhi Soundarajan in Chennai recently. The issue took place while the police started the investigation into her complaint in which she alleged caste-based and gender-based discrimination against her by a colleague at the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT).
Santhi Soundarajan is a renowned athlete who won 12 international medals for India and she was appointed as a woman athletic coach in the state-run Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority, reports IANS. In 2018, the athlete gave a complaint to Vepery police alleging that she was discriminated on the basis of gender and caste by her colleagues.
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The police took up the case after a direction from National Commission for Scheduled Castes. During the inquiry, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Vepery Range, G Harikumar reportedly asked her to provide a gender certificate to prove that she was a female.
The issue has been referred to other senior police officers, said The Hindu.
Talking to IANS, Gopi Sundar, the southern regional representative of the National Council for Transgender Persons said, each individual has the right to self-identify their gender as per the judgment in NALSA Vs Union of India. The police or court does not have any right to question gender identity or expression.
Earlier, Santhi was stripped off a silver media that she won at Asian Games in 2006 since she failed a 'gender verification test'. As per the test, women with higher testosterone are not permitted to participate in women's events.