The travails of LGBTI equality in India

The premise of human rights is rooted in the essence of it that every human being is to be treated equally with dignity without any prejudices. Anything undermining that dignity is considered an infringement of the very essence of equality and is the surest way to discrimination. 

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, in particular, have been shunned and even had to endure isolation for their abnormal lifestyles.  (LGBTI) also, have human rights much like the human rights of anyone else and its increasingly under the scanner as there is a lot of social activism around it globally as LGBTIs are wrangling for their human rights.

In the vast majority of countries in recent times, there have been groundbreaking progress including adopting new legal safeguards in this area.

According to the preamble to the Indian Constitution, all forms of justice including social, economic, and political equality of status is mandatory for everyone. Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution guarantees the right to equality before the law as well as equal protection under the law. As a spinoff effect, LGBTI Indians were granted constitutional protection as the LGBTI community fights for their human rights.

It was a much-awaited and sought-after victory, however, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the LGBTI community in India is truly free or that the common perception is that they are as equal as anyone else. The emphasis is on the volume of work that is yet to be done in India as well as globally to quash age-old and oppressive anti-gay laws.

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In a country as vast and diverse as India people’s attitudes and opinions in regard to this subject as well as experiences of LGBTI individuals vary greatly. Urban and rural India are entirely two different worlds in regards to language, caste, class, and gender which makes the topic even more complex while trying to understand it completely. It's a known fact that the LGBTI community in India cannot be relegated to a negligible minority at all. They do have a strong voice which they want to ensure is heard for reclaiming equality.

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