03 December 2008

Bangalore: Sex change racket - Financer arrested

Bangalore City police have today arrested a financier for his alleged involvement in a major sex change racket in the city.
The police, who had busted the racket yesterday with the arrest of two eunuchs for kidnapping a boy and coercing him into prostitution after his sex was changed, had succeeded in arresting kingpin Rajanna from the city and they were on the look out for a doctor, who operated the boy in Andhra Pradesh, the sources said.
They said the ninth standard student had been identified as Chandrashekhar of T Dasarhalli in the city. He was taken to Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh for the sex change in March, when his parents had filed a missing complaint with the police.The racket involves in kidnapping, castrating and eventually forcing them into begging and prostitution.
The boy revealed that he had gone to Kadapa and underwent a couple of surgeries and got his sex changed before being named as Shilpa. The only son of labour Venkatappa was then forced into the business of prostitution and begging. The money he collected from the day was given to Rajanna, who had financed his surgery in Kadapa. Rajanna had also made the arrangement of Rs 50,000 for the breast transplant in a city hospital.
The boy has been admitted to Victoira hospital for rejuvenating his genitals. The Chief Minister's office has come forward to bear the medical expenses for the operation, they added. According to a report, there were about 25,000 transgenders in the city.

Source: http://mangalorean.com/
Bangalore November 10, 2008

Photo:
Anita Khemka

A beautiful story titled Paal (gender)

Kollywood will be witnessing a new genre of film. The transgenders seem to be setting foot almost everywhere from television anchoring to arts. This time, it’s a new film starring a transgender heroine. The film is titled Paal also meaning gender in Tamil. It is the story of the neglected state of transgenders in the society today. The director of the movie Shivakumar to understand what it felt like to be a transgender has spent a full two months with them in Mumbai. The result of this two-month hunt was Ms Karpaka, who has now been roped in as the heroine. ‘Paal’ will launch choreographer Kadhal Kadas as a hero and paired with him will be Karpaka.

Yet another interesting feature is that the assistant director of the movie is Living Smile Vidya, another transgender who rose to fame with her book, I am Vidya, recently. ‘Paal’ is based on the relationship between the lead pair and how Karpaka fears letting out her original identity to the man she loves and thus avoids him and his love. Karpaka plays the role of a short film maker. Whether she is accepted by the society she belongs to, and the man she loves, forms the climax. The shooting of this film is progressing well and slated for an August release.

see more photos of Ms Karpaka