In many ways, the Kerala Trans Yugala Zahad and Zia Paval are trailblazers. In 2023, he became one of India’s first trans couples, with a child “naturally”. Then earlier this week, he set another milestone in trans rights in India when he won a legal battle to be identified as his daughter’s “parents” instead of “father” and “mother” in his birth certificate.
“Our journey has been long and difficult for a happy family life. We are struggling but we have now shown the way for all trans couples who want to become parents, when it comes to the birth certificate of their wards. We have approved the obstruction, so do not have other people,” tells a 25-year Trans woman, Zia, Indian Express.
In 2023, Zia and Zahad, their 25-year-old partner and a Trans Man, transferred to the Kerala High Court after the birth of their daughter, looking for a direction for the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation to mark them as “parents” in their birth certificate. On Monday, a single bench of Justice Ziad Rahman AA directed the civic body to remove the columns for “mother” and “father” and issue a certificate, instead included the names of petitioners as parents.
In its judgment, the court noticed that the land law should “develop with new concepts of human life and change in society, and when the statutory provision at a particular point does not conform to such social changes, this court has to intervene in redressal of the real complaints of the respective parties”.
“It is an extraordinary case, exceptional measures have to be detected and exceptional relief,” the court said.
For Zahad and Zia, which is a trans couple since 2020, this is a watershed moment.
“We did not accept our daughter’s birth certificate, which marked me as mother and zia,” Zahad, who works in a firm in Thiruvananthapuram, says. “We then decided to turn it into ‘parents’. We wanted to ensure that our daughter should not face any trouble in future. Also, the word ‘parents’ is much stronger than ‘father’ and ‘mother’.”
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According to Zia, the decision was taken in February 2022, when the woman was handed over at birth, who was handed over the woman at birth, stopped her journey to become a trans man and opted for motherhood. In February 2023, after the birth of his daughter Zabia, Zahad resumes gender infection. Meanwhile, Zia began her journey as a trans woman.
In February, his daughter Zabia turned two years old.
The couple wants Zabia to call them by their names when they grow up. He currently calls Zahad Pappa (father) and Zia Amma (mother). “Let her call us now. She listens to other children calling her parents. In the future, however, we want her to address us by our name,” Zia says.
For now, she is growing up like any little girl. But she would eventually be free to choose what she wants, Zia says.
“We will not interfere in her identity. She is free to decide after 18,” she says.
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In its judgment this week, the High Court noted that while implementing the registration of the Birth and Death Act, 1969 – law -controlling law -controlling laws in India – MPs had never envisaged such a situation. “Concepts like transgenders lead life together as a family, as we understood normally, their own children, getting their children’s names under the Act, etc., there were some that the legalists probably did not guess the time of their enactment. Well, the court said.
According to advocate Padma Lakshmi, the first transgender advocate in Kerala, who represented the couple in the court, was trolling her for her stance when she met her after her daughter’s birth. Padma says, “I assured him to do a legal battle to find a solution.”
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