Trans, queer people in Kolkata | In search of safe spaces

Queer individuals in Kolkata face violence and discrimination, highlighting the need for safe spaces and legal protection.

“Please help! They are beating us up!” Sayon Sheikh, 26, had screamed over the phone to his colleague Koyel Ghosh when he and his colleague Ree were attacked in West Bengal’s capital Kolkata in February this year. He recalls Ghosh and another co-worker rushing to their rescue. That morning, Sheikh and Ree had gone to the grocery store just a few metres from the café where they work.

“We saw a woman jump the line at the checkout,” Sheikh remembers. When he objected, matters escalated. What followed, he says, was a “horrible memory” he can’t get out of his head. On the road, a mob of over 30 people allegedly gathered and circled them, taunting them with queer-phobic slurs. Then, all four say they were sexually harassed and beaten up. As a shy Sheikh gathers his thoughts, he is anxious and uncomfortable describing the manner in which the mob touched him and questioned his queer identity.

Sheikh and his colleagues work at Porshi, a café in Jodhpur Park, one of Kolkata’s most expensive neighbourhoods. It offers a safe space for trans and queer people to be among friends and is run by Sappho for Equality, one of the oldest queer-trans activist forums in the State. Ghosh is the organisation’s managing trustee.

Ghosh says they immediately called the Lake thana (police station), less than a kilometre away, but the police showed up only after they were assaulted. “Even when they arrived, rather than protecting us, they insisted that we get into the police van. We filed a complaint and an FIR was registered, but a counter FIR was filed against us two days later,” Ghosh says, adding that the police have made multiple visits to their café.

The police are unwilling to speak about the matter or comment on anything related to violence against trans people in the city. Yet, on April 15, during the observance of the 18th National Transgender Day, attended by activists, actors, and government officials, members of the police force were also present.

Ranjita Sinha, a trans woman activist, had said at the event, “West Bengal is still far behind in the transgender movement.”

As per the National Crime Records Bureau, just one crime was registered in 2022 under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and it was reported in Tamil Nadu.