“Too Late to Accept”: NHRC Rejects Tamil Nadu Athlete’s Complaint

Santhi Soundarajan was stripped of a silver medal she won at the Doha Asian Games because she failed a gender test.

Santhi was stripped of the silver medal she won at the Doha Asian Games because she failed a gender test. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Santhi Soundarajan/Altered by The Quint)

Santhi Soundarajan, the Tamil Nadu athlete, who after a decade of struggle, finally had some semblance of justice last year when she was given a permanent post with the State Sports Development Authority.

However, her battle to restore the medals and the dignity stripped from her after failing a ‘gender test’ in the 2006 Asian Games, is still ongoing. And in a blow to the same, her complaint to the National Human Rights Commission for the human rights violations she was subjected to, back in 2006, has been dismissed yet again.

The complaint is against Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and Indian Olympic Association (IOA). This was also the third time Santhi approached the apex human rights body.

Santhi received a response from the NHRC in January saying that her complaint was not entertainable as per Section 36(2) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. The quoted section reads:

The Commission or the State Commission shall not inquire into any matter after the expiry of one year from the date on which the act constituting violation of human rights is alleged to have been committed.

Also Read: 10 Yrs Post a Failed Gender Test, TN Athlete Is Now a Coach

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

It essentially means that the act which violated Santhi’s human rights – the gender test – was conducted more than a year ago from when the complaint was filed, which is why the NHRC rejected it.

However, Gopi Shankar, an activist from Madurai and the first intersex person to contest an Assembly election, says that this stand is inconsistent with NHRC’s responses to the previous complaints – one filed by him and one by Santhi.

Gopi filed a complaint as a third party in 2016, which was admitted by the NHRC. The NHRC also responded saying that the complaint had been “transmitted to the concerned authority for such action as deemed appropriate” and this authority should react within eight weeks and also inform the complainant about it.

“But we don’t know who these ‘concerned authorities’ are. The complaint was then dismissed,” Gopi informs.

In 2015, when Santhi had filed the complaint the response she received was:

The complaint is addressed to other authority with only copy sent to this Commission. The authority is expected to take appropriate action in this matter. Hence, no action is called for.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

“When the NHRC admitted the complaints twice before, rejecting it under Section 36(2) doesn’t make sense. It shows they can peruse it but have chosen not to,” Gopi alleges.

In 2006, Santhi was made to undergo a ‘gender test’ in Doha where she was participating in the Asian Games and was diagnosed with hyperadrogenism, a condition which causes excess testosterone in the body.

Until now however, Santhi has not received the medical reports of this test, Gopi claims. In March 2016, Santhi and Gopi had both filed separate RTI’s to AFI asking for the test reports to be provided to Santhi.

AFI President Adille Summariwala however, has maintained that they have provided a copy of the report to her in 2012.

Gopi alleges that Santhi was made to stand nude for half a day for the ‘gender test’ in 2006, not knowing the language the doctors spoke or what tests she was undergoing. After the test results came out, Santhi was stripped of all her medals.

And even though the Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the International Association of Athletics Federations' rules for hyperandrogenism in 2015, Santhi has still not received her medals.