The political leadership of the city of Berkeley in Northern California, USA, recently decided to do
away with gender specific words in the city’s code. Henceforth a ‘manhole’ will
become a ‘maintenance hole’, ‘artisans’ will replace ‘craftsmen’ and
firefighters and police officers no longer will be identified by their gender
in Berkeley’s city code under an ordinance passed by city leaders Tuesday. The
City Council voted unanimously to replace more than two dozen terms often used
in the city’s municipal code with gender-neutral words.
“In recent years, broadening societal awareness of transgender
and gender nonconforming identities has brought to light the importance of
non-binary gender inclusivity,” council member Rigel Robinson wrote in a letter
to the council in March. Berkeley’s current municipal code contains mostly
masculine pronouns, according to a city staff report. “It is both timely and
necessary to make the environment of City Hall and the language of city
legislation consistent with the principles of inclusion,” Robinson said.
Broadening social awareness of transgender and gender nonconforming identities
has led to sweeping changes across the state.
Now if a similar move was initiated in Goa, how would it feel?
Meenacshi Martins, actress, psychiatrist and activist, was very enthused by the
move. She said, “Why only Goa, why can’t it be across India? Times have
changed, women are now in greater numbers in public life and these changes have
to be made to adjust to it. I am a Chairperson for a committee and there are
men who are in similar positions in other places. Why should it be ‘Chairman’
or ‘Chairwoman’? ‘Chairperson’ keeps it neutral. There are other words that we
use in our daily lives here in Goa. A start has been made here too and it will
gain speed. Like I said, it was a great move in Berkley.”
In 2014, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a measure
that replaced ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ in state law with the gender-neutral term
‘spouse’. In 2017, California became the first state to provide a third gender
option on state driver’s licenses, identification cards and birth certificates
with the passage of Senate Bill 179.
Swayan Chaudhuri, Managing Director and CEO at Imagine Panaji
Smart City Development Ltd is in the forefront of making the city of Panjim
liveable and easy for its residents to move around. Speaking about the move by
Berkeley, he said that he had read about it and felt it was a good move. With
regard to initiating something similar in Panjim and other places, he felt the
municipality would be the right authorities to speak to but with regard to
having a gender-neutral language, his staff was an ideal example. He said, “I
don’t think there should be any bias. We have more women than men in our staff.
There is no bias towards any sex. We get smart women working here and they are
involved in site inspections and we have all the back-end support. It is a very
safe, encouraging environment. One of the reasons for this success is the
diversity in our staff. Men and women are very balanced. This move in Berkeley
is very good but we are doing something similar here in our office too.”
Berkeley
had also instituted some other changes. In February, the city began extending
the option to all employees to receive a name badge with a preferred pronoun
printed alongside their professional title.
