CORRECTIVE SURGERIES ON PERSONS BORN WITH INTERSEX-VARIATIONS IN INDIA
Keywords:
Gender-Binary, Intersex, Intersex-Variations, Medicalisation of Sex, Queer Theory, Sex Reassignment SurgeryAbstract
In the absence of any census, there is no exact number to figure out the population of the intersex persons in India. The Register of Births, a statutory register maintained to record all births in India under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 classifies all births under the binary of male and female. In the absence of any legal definition of what constitutes as ‘male’ and ‘female’, this paper attempts to understand the methods deployed by the medical practices in constructing the socio-legal category of ‘sex’ only in terms of male/female. This evaluation is based on a critical analysis of five academic papers wherein, they discuss a total of 561 cases of corrective-surgeries operated on persons born with intersex variations between 1989 and 2007. The paper raises ethical and policy concerns over the continued pathologisation of the persons born with intersex variations that categorise them as a disorder. Based upon its critical analysis, this paper challenges the Indian socio-legal understanding of ‘sex’ and argues a case for completely dismantling the existing identities that define ‘sex’ as male/female.
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