Swati Bidhan Baruah
Birthplace:
Guwahati, Assam
Residence:
Guwahati, Assam
Qualification:
B.Com. (Hons.) with Accountancy and LL.B. (Hons.)
Inspiration:
Books and pens
POWERHOUSE OF THE NORTH-EAST
The first Assamese transgender judge, she started with a legal battle for her rights and continues for the community.
Some say she loves courting controversy, pun intended. They portray her as a woman who leaves no opportunity to be at loggerheads with the government. But when you set out on a mission, labels are expected. She has refused to acknowledge any of them. “This attitude will naturally make me controversy’s favourite child, won’t it?”
She has made headlines – for all the right reasons. Her lone legal fight led to the Bombay High Court ruling that sex-change operations are not against the law. It paved the way for many transgender people like her to come out and live fearlessly.
This victory in 2012 also awakened the lawyer within her. “I chose to practice Law because I had experienced what a legal battle can do – drain you emotionally and financially. I wanted to fight for those who did not have the means. The profession was also my weapon to question the government, whenever required, and protect the community’s rights and dignity.”
She has truly proved her worth. In 2018, just two years into practice, she was appointed Assam’s first transgender conciliator and member judge of the District Session Court National Lok Adalat.
Academics above everything else
Swati was born in Guwahati on 29 April 1991 – as a boy, then known as Bidhan. As a child, she would be in awe of mythological and fantasy TV show characters who could change their avatars. “The more I tried connecting with my physical gender, the more distressed I became. These shows gave me hope that changing one’s sex was possible in real life too.”
She loved cosmetics and beauty creams. Her parents didn’t mind much initially but as she entered her adolescent years, this gender expression became a matter of grave concern for them.
“I see those years as the most difficult time of my life. I wasn’t invited to weddings. My parents would lock me up in a room whenever guests visited. Trying to connect with myself at that age in a hostile family environment was tough.”
Despite the social discrimination and friction with her parents, Swati maintained a superb academic record, topping her class from nursery to her graduation. The school provided her with free books besides waiving 50% of her fees. She won many government awards and scholarships with grants going up to Rs. 1.25 lakh.
Her academic excellence also became her shield against harassment. “I commanded that respect. Fellow students would pray to get their exam seats close to mine because I would help them with the answers. They thank me even today,” she laughs.
At home, the tipping point for her family came when her father overheard her chatting with her college-time flight lieutenant boyfriend on the phone.
“I laugh thinking about it. I was in my room, fully covered under a blanket, whispering sweet nothings to him, unaware that my father was right there, at the foot of my bed, listening.” Her enraged father smashed her phone with a hammer. “It was a Nokia 1100 he had given me.”
Her boyfriend gifted her a new one, a Nokia 3100 Classic. “I was caught again. This time, they put it under a running tap.”
Towards freedom
Swati was determined to get out of a body that was stifling her soul. “I had decided to undergo SRS. I would spend hours at the cyber-café looking up the best hospitals and doctors.”
Having done her research well, she left home on the night of 31 March 2012 with a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, her laptop and money she had saved from odd jobs.
“I was excited and nervous about the prospects. Also, this journey was my first by air. I didn’t even know how to fasten a seat belt.” She tied its ends into a knot so tight that she had to wriggle out of it to exit the aircraft.
She contacted her cousin in Mumbai and spoke at length about the purpose of her visit. The next thing she knew was that informed by the cousin, her parents had issued a legal notice to her doctor and the hospital management. “We couldn’t go ahead with the surgery without a court order.”
She petitioned the Bombay High Court challenging this notice and won. “It was India’s first landmark ruling stating that sex change operations were not against the law.”
There were losses too. Her relationship ended and her savings had been wiped out. “I shifted priorities and returned to Guwahati to finish college. Now that I had the law on my side, the surgery could wait.”
Swati earned LL.B. degree in 2015 with a 98% score while continuing her treatment.
A long list of achievements
“One day, soon after the NALSA verdict, on a drizzling morning, I looked out and was shocked to see around 2,000 hijras sitting outside my door. They wanted me to take forward their fight for rights.”
She then decided to form the All-Assam Transgender Association. Government officials refused to register it under the Societies Act, calling it immoral and socially inappropriate. She took legal recourse. The organisation, officially formed on 25 December 2015, has over 25,000 transgender people as members and the support of several legal counsels and renowned medical practitioners.
She holds the record for amicably settling 750 cases within the first half of a working day. Swati is also India’s first transgender person to be appointed on the Airport Authority of India’s legal panel and the first transgender from India to earn membership in the Common Court of LGBTQ Judges Association, Philadelphia, USA.
She is Assam’s first transgender person to work for proper implementation of NALSA judgment in her state including the constitution of the Assam Transgender Welfare Board of which she is the vice-chairperson. She has worked for the inclusion of 25,000 transgender people in the National Registrar of Citizenship and has helped the Assam government form progressive policies for transgenders. She has fought for the inclusion of the trans-community in government schemes.
She has established Tritiyo Niwas, an independent shelter home for the community, which is also a skill development centre with tie-ups with IGNOU and the State Open University. She has reformed recruitment rules for the Assam Public Service Commission.
VISION FOR THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY
It’s her dream to see the community as bureaucrats, members of Parliament and one day, run this country. “The community have been forced to struggle and experience the worst. But there have been luminaries who have risen above it all.”
As its integral and active member, she feels NNTP is an effective medium to discuss transgender issues and address them legally, politically and administratively.
She says the community now has legal rights, law enforcement agencies are a bit more receptive than before; and access to information is easier. “It makes us feel like a part of this country. We have at least been recognised by the current government. We need to use these to achieve a life of dignity.”
MESSAGE FOR THE MAINSTREAM SOCIETY
Swati abhors the patriarchal mindset created by families and societies. “It’s discriminatory and disruptive. Society needs to change its outlook. Not sympathy, we want only empathy.”
She dislikes any injustice and discrimination against any life – she has saved thousands of dogs from the meat trade in the northeast. She fights for nature too and has been planting trees in stiff competition with tree-cutters.
She immensely credits her friends outside the community to stand by her, and the media houses to cover her journey. “They empowered and helped me focus on my growth. I hope that like them the entire nation stands with us.”
FIVE FACTS ABOUT SWATI
She has saved thousands of dogs from the meat trade in the northeast.
She loves reading: Horror Stories by Gauri De, Everything Happens for a Reason by Kate Bowler, The Art of Letting Go by Sanhita, When You Can’t Trust Love by Prasenjeet Kumar, etc. She is passionate about writing and painting too.
She has been a state-level winner in a painting competition breaking an iconic artist’s 14-year winning streak.
She loves The Kapil Sharma Show.
She is a fitness freak and loves paneer.
