Transgenders IdentityAndBankAccount
India is trying to increase the number of its citizens who have bank accounts.The trouble is applications for
bank account don’t offer a third-gender option to applicants despite the RBI directive
hen Balasubramaniam
went to the bank to open a
savings account, she had
to say she was a man.
The 56-year-old has
greying hair and wears glasses.When we
met, she wore a white sari with a black,
flower-patterned border.
She was born a man in Thiruvanna-
malai in Tamil Nadu, and lives in Ben-
galuru where she works at the Samara
Society, a group that teaches transgender
people skills like stitching, candle mak-
ing and typing so they can earn enough
money to support themselves.
She said she wanted to open a bank
account, and wanted to identify herself
as “transgender,” but her paperwork did-
n’t offer the option. The bank teller
rubbed it in. “Why do you wear a sari
when you have a man’s name?” he asked.
That question should be irrelevant. A
year after India’s Supreme Court passed a
judgement that grants legal recognition
to India’s transgender community, the
Reserve Bank of India this April directed
all banks to include “third gender” in
their banking form. The directive does
not include a deadline by when banks
must comply.
India is trying to increase the number
of its citizens who have bank accounts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Au-
gust pledged to get tens of millions of
people to open accounts and end “finan-
cial untouchability.”
Banks see new opportunities to serve
large numbers of customers, and have
urged the government to deposit peo-
ple’s subsidies in their bank accounts to
make sure that they get what they are
owed.
That includes India’s approximately
500,000 transgender people, according to
Census data from 2014 (Some activists
say the actual number is six times
higher)
The trouble is that KnowYour Cus-
tomer documents of some banks, which
banks require as a security measure
when people apply for bank accounts,
don’t offer a third-gender option to ap-
plicants despite the RBI directive.
The problem goes deeper than the
lack of a third-gender option. Very few
transgendered people have all the iden-
tity documents that the know-your-cus-
tomer process requires.
These include
PAN cards and
proof-of-address
documents such
as voter identifica-
tion cards, ration
cards, drivers’ li-
cences and pass-
ports (all of which
offer options for
“male,” “female”
and “other”).
Getting those documents means hav-
ing yet other documents like a secondary
school certificate or a family ration card.
But many transgendered people ran
away from home at a young age because
of prejudice within the family, said Kalki
Subramaniam, a transgender activist and
actress in Auroville, Tamil Nadu.
That makes it difficult for these people
even to establish an adult identity. Some
people change their names to break with
their past or to go with their new identi-
ties, making it even harder to establish
who they are or where they come from.
Manjunath, a 22-year-old transvestite
who is a student of business manage-
ment, gave his sex as male on his KYC
form, though he
usually dresses in a
sari when he visits
the Corporation
Bank where he is a
customer. Fortu-
nately for him, he
lives in Bengaluru
with his family, and
was able to prove
his identity.
Reuters sought
comment from the State Bank of India,
ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahin-
dra Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank and the In-
dian Banks’ Association.
None would comment on the lack of a
third-gender option or the difficulty of
satisfying KYC rules. An employee of one
bank who refused to speak on the record
said that the gender choice is irrelevant,
and that the identification documents
are what count.
Since the RBI guidelines were issued,
SBI, ICICI and Canara Bank have created
a position for “other” in their forms.
Manjunath’s pragmatism about pick-
ing a gender on a formmight have expe-
dited his application, but Subramaniam
said documents that identify a third gen-
der would be an important step in help-
ing people get over their prejudice
toward people who are transgender,
transvestites or of an indeterminate sex-
ual group. She cited examples of bank
employees and customers teasing trans-
gendered people when they visited
banks as a reason why things aren’t as
they should be.
Subramaniam also said the RBI
needed to take a more welcoming ap-
proach towards transgender people with
know-your-customer forms.
Such documents are mandatory for
opening all accounts except for “small
accounts” with a maximum balance of
50,000 rupees (about $780).
Such accounts also are allowed to stay
open only for a year after which the
banks decide whether identity and ad-
dress proofs need to be submitted for
their continuation.
“I think this is just a step in taking the
movement forward, making transgender
people more equal and recognizing
them as citizens,” Subramaniam said.
W
Derek Francis
Correspondent
Reuters
xpect out of the ordinaire when
you enter this restaurant. The
chef here wears protective
glasses and wields a blow torch,
while gases fume through the
kitchen doors. For Kolkata-born chef Gag-
gan Anand - whose restaurant ‘Gaggan’ in
Bangkok has been ranked the best in Asia
and 10th best in the world by a ratings
website - “a progressive path was neces-
sary to change the face of Indian cuisine
globally”.
“I was made to be different,” Anand, 36,
said in a candid email exchange with
IANS fromBangkok, adding that his pro-
gressive cooking comes from his desire to
change the look, feel, texture and taste of
Indian food - inspired by rock and roll
music and his guru, Ferran Adria at ElBulli
restaurant in Spain’s Girona town.
Drawing flavors from the street food of
Kolkata, Anand retains some of the popu-
lar street snacks on his menu.
Chocolate pani puri, edible plastic
spiced nuts, potato 2-some - crispy and
liquid, Keema pao (mini burgers made
with lamb curry), Bengali mustard and
noori pakoda find a place among the
street food inspirations.
“I had the idea to open up a restaurant
on Indian food made in a progressive way,
but it took me two years to believe that my
idea could be made possible,” Anand ex-
claimed, adding that his culinary journey
was never planned but he
had merely followed what
had come his way.
Serving food with tech-
niques of molecular gas-
tronomy (application of
scientific methods for
food development), Gag-
gan has since 2010 been
revolutionizing the way
Indian food is crafted.
The techniques range
from the use of liquid ni-
trogen (for instantly freez-
ing substances), sous vide
(a technique where meats or other sub-
stances are vaccum sealed in a packet and
immersed in a hot water bath to ensure
slow cooking), use of maltodextrin to con-
vert oils into powdered form - these are
some of the key techniques of molecular
gastronomy.
“I would not say that all Indian food
tastes better in this progressive way. But
we keep researching to make the food not
just about technique. If you try the 23
courses that we make, it can be seen that
each one is a different technique and ap-
plication, adding to a different texture,”
Anand said, adding that a research space
is a very important component of his
kitchen to keep innovating.
The restaurant also allows the cus-
tomers to choose to be seated at the
‘chef’s table’, which has a see-through
glass offering a view into the kitchen. The
dishes, with the fuming liquid nitrogen or
smoked meats, add to the theatrics. The
menu also allows a ‘Taste of Gaggan’ or
the ‘Best of Gaggan’, each consisting of
over 10 courses.
Asked why he opened a restaurant in
the Thai capital but not anywhere in
India, he said: “I was already settled in
Bangkok, but in India we are planning a
restaurant too; when and where..we’ll
hold that as a surprise.”
– IANS
ChangingTheFaceOf IndianCuisineGlobally
E
By Bhavana
Akella
Opinion
The problem goes deeper
than the lack of a
third-gender option.
Very few transgendered
people have all the
identity documents that
the know-your-customer
process requires.
News India Times
July 17, 2015
4
