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As per a news report appearing in the Tamizh daily newspaper “Daily Thanthi”, the Tamil Nadu government has released, for the first time, the record of intersex births for the year 2024. The data declares 40 recorded births of intersex infants across the 38 districts of the State.

This data is the result of efforts by intersex persons in the State led by activist Vinodhan T, founder of VoIS (Variations of Intersex Support), India – a Coimbatore-based collective of intersex persons working for the intersections of anti-caste, disability, intersex, trans and queer rights.

Vinodhan joined the Drafting Committee for the Tamil Nadu State LGBTQIA+ Policy in July 2023. Soon after, as a representative of the intersex community and founder of VoIS, he submitted a letter to the Health Ministry. This letter raised two key demands:

1. That government hospitals be directed to release the data on total births of infants with intersex variations in the State.
2. That the administration of government hospitals be directed to cooperate with activists of the community for conducting proper sensitization programmes with doctors and other medical staff.

Over 2023 and 2024 he then conducted follow-ups with the department every time he visited Chennai.

Even though he has not yet received formal communication from the Health Department, the government has released the data on January 3, 2025, as per the newspaper report. In his community post sharing the news, Vinodhan wrote about the historic importance of this data and asked community members to seek such data from their respective states as well.

Terminology issues

It is important to note that even though the data records births of intersex infants, the table wrongly uses the Tamizh term “Moondram Paalinam” (roughly translated to third gender) to publish this data. Trans and intersex activists in Tamil Nadu have repeatedly asserted that “Moondram Paalinam” is a derogatory term and that it should not be used to refer to either trans or intersex persons.

When asked about this, Vinodhan mentioned that this is indeed a problem. He said that there are certain terms, promoted by the government and accepted by the Press Club, which are used regularly in news reports. For instance, he said that “Moondram Paalinam” is used to refer to almost all queer identities. Similarly, they use the term “Maatru Thirunali” (roughly translated as ‘differently abled’) to refer to disabled persons.

He stated that these terminology issues continue despite the community glossary created for each identity/expression. A detailed glossary in Tamizh has been published by queer magazine Paalputhu Pakkangkal. The Tamil Nadu government’s Department of Social Welfare and Women Empowerment has also released a “glossary for addressing the LGBTQIA+ community” through their gazette notification dated August 20, 2022. However, these are rarely followed.

Next steps

Regarding the data released, Vinodhan stated that he will now be attempting to access the original government notification as well as follow up with the government department. First, he wants the government to issue a circular to make sure that this data is released every year. Further, as part of the second demand made in his letter, there is a serious need for conducting sensitization and awareness work with the government hospitals pertaining to intersex and trans rights. This is, however, not possible without the support and directions from the government.

The government hospital administrations, he said, have so far rejected VoIS’ attempts to conduct awareness and sensitization programmes. The administration and doctors tend to say that they already know everything about intersex and trans people and that there is nothing new that community members can educate doctors about.

This lack of interest in learning more about the community from the community is a matter of grave concern, Vinodhan noted. Intersex persons’ right to health is regularly being violated due to the lack of appropriate knowledge of the medical staff, and trans people are also facing indignity while attempting to access safe healthcare. Even though the old and discriminatory rules of getting multiple certificates from psychiatrists, gynaecologists and surgeons just to get HRT or surgeries have been discarded, he stated that this practice is still going on in various hospitals. In many cases, trans men have also been subjected to the traumatizing two-finger test by gynaecologists (banned by the Supreme Court in 2013) in the name of “physical check-ups” before issuing certificates for HRT and surgeries.

There is much to be done, and it is hoped that the Health Ministry will now take action on the second demand raised in the letter as well.