TOBA TEK SINGH, Jan 26: District and Sessions Judge and Human Rights Commission chairman Suhaib Ahmad Roomi on Friday ordered rehabilitation of eunuchs to end their sufferings.
Disposing of a petition filed by an eunuch, Bashir, aka Bushra, against another eunuch Nazir, alias Neelo, in which he accused the latter of amputating his vital organ, he directed the Human Rights Commission officials to take measures to rehabilitate eunuchs to end their dependence on alms.
The judge also cited a petition filed by Nazir, alias Neelo, to the Kamalia sessions judge against Bashir, alias Bushra, alleging he had castrated him without his consent. Nazir, later, withdrew from the case after a compromise with Bashir.
In his order, the judge said one thing that could not be ignored was that the petitioner and the respondent were born with masculine characteristics. They, he said, had developed feminine behaviour owing to unfavourable social circumstances and had to take up dancing as a profession to make ends meet.
For acceptance in the community of eunuchs, who dance to make a living, they even agreed to have their vital parts removed, he said, adding the court also had them medically examined from the DHQ hospital.
The judge said they were not ready to disclose whereabouts of those who had castrated them. He said they also took female hormones to develop feminine characteristics.
He said it was not known who had performed the surgical procedures, adding they could have suffered from severe medical complications on account of non-sterilsation.
He said they were forced into begging by social circumstances. He said society was abhorrent to dancing that forced them to switch to the other profession to make a living.
The judge said the matter needed immediate attention of sociologists, philanthropists, psychologists, adding the district authorities, particularly the EDO (health), should look into the situation.
It is high time they realised the gravity of the situation that demanded zealous activism on the part of administrations concerned to take preventive measures for abstinence of the evil but also think about rehabilitation of the sufferers, which, of course, are victims of our socio-cultural behaviour, he said.
He said the situation depicted a very pathetic and gloomy scenario. To keep the relation between the body and soul, they have to seek alms, he said.
While quoting line of Sahir Ludhianvi Sana khawan-i-taqdees-i-mashriq kahan hein, he said it was our duty to abstain such people from self-castration.
The judge also ordered that copies of his judgment be sent to officials concerned to devise a mechanism to resolve this painful social issue, which had penetrated into the most oppressed class subjects of their dominion at least to palliate their agony under intimation to the District Human Rights Commission.