Bangladesh Public Service Commission for the first time has recognised transgender community under third gender category giving them a cut in BCS exams application fees, but the provision set by BPSC to testify one’s transgender status eclipse this commendable step to some extent.

In its job advertisement published on Sunday for 36th BCS examinations BPSC reduced the payable exam fees from the regular Tk 700 to Tk 100 for the Third Gender applicants, who will have to produce a certificate issued from local civil surgeons supporting their transgender status.

The government on 12 November 2013 decided to recognise transgender people as the third gender along with male and female.

While BPSC’s step to create an equal atmosphere for this neglected section of the society is showered with appreciations; university teachers, social activists, and even members of the transgender community think getting civil surgeon certificates to prove their gender orientation might inflict immense mental trauma on transgender applicants and create a sense of inferiority in them.

Ivan Ahemd Kotha, a transgender and the president of Sachetan Shilpi Sangha, an organisation working for the rights of transgender people, has welcomed BPSC’s step, however, voicing fear over possible harassment such process might involve.

Kotha said they were struggling against being called ‘different and abnormal,’ but the government step would push them further to ‘otherness.’

‘Transgender job seekers, unlike male and female genders, will have to take certificates through body check-ups. This very process makes us other,’ said Kotha who requested the authorities to look for alternatives to determine gender.

BPSC officials, however, could not be reached for comments in this regard. NTV Online tried to contact its chairman over phone, but he did not answer to the phone call.

Asked about the BPSC rules for the third gender applicants, Dhaka University women and gender studies teacher Tania Haque said, ‘Government recognises third gender people. I welcome that. But this should be through due respect.’

‘Nothing should be done that embarrass them. And getting a third gender certificate from any office may be humiliating for an adult,’ Tania Haque added.

Rangpur Begum Rokeya University women and gender studies lecturer Kuntala Chowdhury criticised this rule requiring gender tests saying, ‘This certification process will be as traumatic as the two-finger-test of the rape victims’.

Kuntala further said, ‘This will be ironical that the authorities are recognising transgender people as third gender and then asking for certificates.’

Suggesting an alternative to this kind of certification Kuntala said that the authorities may consider police verification process followed in case of passport issuance, in which information on applicants is gathered by sending police to their homes and communities.

This will spare the transgender applicants from the humiliation and embarrassment, she added.