The Indian Navy has sacked a 25-year-old sailor for undergoing a gender reassignment surgery and becoming a woman.
Sabi Giri, formerly known as Manish K Giri, underwent a surgery last year while on a three-week leave.
A spokesperson for the Navy said the sailor was discharged from service for breaching recruitment regulations and eligibility criteria.
“He chose to undergo irreversible gender reassignment on his own accord, wilfully altering his gender status from the one he was recruited for at the time of his induction,” Commander CG Raju said.
The defence forces in India have been inducting women officers for over two decades now but only men are recruited as sailors, soldiers and airmen in the lower ranks with transgender or transsexual people not being allowed to join the forces.
Raju said, adding that existing service rules and regulations stipulate the sacking of sailors who undergo alterations in “gender status or medical condition”.
Giri who now goes by the name ‘Sabi’ said she will challenge the decision in a court.
"I served the country for seven years. I did my job. Why should I be dismissed from service just because I changed my gender? I am not a thief or a terrorist," she told .
“How can they discharge me because I underwent a sex change? I remain the same old person with the same potential and efficiency.”
She claimed the Indian Navy kept her in a psychiatric ward with male inmates for many months.
"My altered gender status is who I am, a transgender woman. It is sheer torture and horrible violation of my rights to expect me to remain in my male gender assigned at birth, and not to express my gender identity of a woman."
The Indian Navy found out that about the surgery when she had to see the Navy doctors after suffering an infection of the urinary tract.
She was then referred to for psychiatric treatment. Her case was subsequently referred to India’s Ministry of Defence with the recommendation to discharge her from the service.
