It’s hard to find any words for this, let alone adequate ones. It’s just horrific.
In the 17 years since he retired, a doctor in Kadapa, southern India, is believed to have carried out anything up to 50 GRS procedures on boys who have then been trafficked into prostitution.
Here’s the full report as published on Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency’s website (link here):
Police in Tamil Nadu are working on a theory that a transexual gang operating in south India is luring young boys and forcing them to undergo sex change operation and later engage them in prostitution.
Although initial details are sketchy, police in Chennai said two such cases had surfaced recently, after a retired doctor was arrested in Kadapa in Andra Pradesh yesterday, making them believe a transgender gang is behind the heinous crime.
“We arrested the doctor from Kadapa and he admitted of helping the transsexual group. He has done 40 to 50 operations on boys to change their sex.”
“We are also working on this angle, of a transgender gang involved in luring young boys and forcing them to change their sex and later lure them into prostitution to earn money,” Chennai deputy inspector-general of police (crime investigation division) S.N. Seshasai told Bernama today.
On Friday, Chennai police arrested the 75-year-old doctor, wanted for castrating a 16-year-old by from Tamil Nadu last year, suspected to be under the order of the gang who later kidnapped the minor to Pune, where he was abused to beg and work as a prostitute.
“The doctor had been doing this (surgery) for 17 years since he retired. He said he does about two to three surgeries on boys every year. He removes their male organs and turn them into a female. He is on remand now,” added Seshasai.
The 16-year-old victim, who managed to escape from Pune and returned to his family, is currently undergoing medical treatment.
An estimated 30,000 transgender persons live in Tamil Nadu and there are more than half a million of them across India.
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ETA: Express News Service website carries more information about the kidnapping of a teenage boy “and forcing him into prostitution in Pune after making him undergo sex change surgery”. Apparently six people have been arrested in connection with this and a further seven are wanted for questioning.
Another ETA: Via Indian Express. Is that the sound of backpedalling?
bird of paradox 
April 5, 2009 at 9:42 pm
i would like to see collaborating sources before i fully trust this story. malaysia is not exactly known for either media independence or for tolerance of trans*folk, so there is the possibility that they are distorting a story to their purposes to illustrate how Terribly Ev0l trans* people are. not that i don’t believe the story at all; i am, however, very suspicious of the claim that the gang doing the trafficking are “transexual”.
if this story is true, it is appalling; that doctor and those who put him up to it are raping children, and my initial emotional reaction is that things should be done to them that i don’t wish to describe here.
regardless of the story’s veracity, it will surely be used as fodder by the radfem/right-wing cabal to further crush trans* folk, and may cause a backlash and increased violence against us.
April 5, 2009 at 10:32 pm
While there may be truth to this, my understanding is that “hijras kidnap young boys to castrate them” is an old trope. Not that I know much about the situation, it’s just what I’ve been told.
And, well…
http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/takeaction/globalactionalerts/650.html
April 5, 2009 at 10:34 pm
oh dear, i’m having a bad moment, saw the ‘trope’ i was referring to, and overlooked what nation this is actually taking place in :/ bad move. still, i share GG’s skepticism.
April 6, 2009 at 5:31 am
I call bullshit. This belongs in the same folder as the stories of Romas kidnapping babies.
But u bet it will be used to oppress trans ppl in India and elsewhere.
April 6, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I am also sceptical, but open to erring toward believing if corroberating evidence appears.
As well as the above mentioned trope in that part of the world, I’m further sceptical as it sounds like it could also be based off the classic ‘all sexwork=trafficing’ thing, and the ‘trannies don’t what they are thinking, so all the surgeons and psychs are mutilators’ one.
The idea of a consensual and informed ‘get genital-surgery now, pay for it after via sexwork’ privately-arranged payment scheme is not inconcievable, although obviously it’s no way ideal.
April 6, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I’m really hoping this, as your other commenters have suggested, isn’t true. I do agree, something is fishy about this… I wonder if perhaps this has happened once, as in the case of the 16 year old, which of course is horrible, but then the transphobic media has blown the whole thing up and now it’s all about gangs of trans people going around doing this on a regular basis. Suprised they’ve not suggested they’re harvesting organs, too… Or is it just the radfems who think that way?
April 6, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I note the 2nd article, mentioned in the edit note, both uses the lovely sentance “She indulged him in homosexuality.” (regarding a “transgender priest” and the apparent accuser), and throughout appears to give the birth names of the mentioned trans people as if they are criminal pseudonyms. >_>
..Also, wouldn’t this also possibly incorpoate a twist on that old ‘homosexual recruitment’ trope, except applied to trans (since we’re just gay men in dresses after all).