KOLLAM: The committee of experts tasked with finding a Malayalam term for ‘transgender’ has put its efforts on hold after failing to identify one. The Kerala Bhasha Institute had come up with a contest to find a suitable Malayalam word for addressing members of the transgender community eight months ago. The community had hailed the move. The institute later invited entries from the public, and a panel of language expert committee was formed to finalise a term.
However, the committee, comprising language experts and transgender community members, could not identify a term that is both politically correct and accepted by the community. Over 2,000 Malayalam terms were submitted to the institute. However, even after several rounds of scrutiny, the committee could not pick a suitable word.
“Most of the 2,000 terms received were either politically incorrect or seemed to be a taunt at the community. We held several meetings but failed to finalise a term,”M Sathyan, director of the institute, told TNIE.
Many of the terms were female-centric and failed to encapsulate the transgender community. “Malayalam language has limitations when it comes to creating a term for the community as a whole. So, until a suitable term is found, it is preferable to use ‘transgender’,” said Syama S Prabha, member of the expert committee.