Mumbai, Jun 12 (NIE): Lalita Salve, a police constable from Maharashtra’s Beed district, was discharged Tuesday after undergoing the first stage of a sex reassignment surgery on May 25 at a state-run hospital in Mumbai. The second operation will be conducted after six months, doctors had said after the surgery.

“I have lived as a woman for 29 years. I will finally get free from this state now. I am looking forward to my new life,” the constable, who now prefers being called Lalit, had earlier said.

Born in June 1988, Salve had told the Bombay High Court in a petition that she had noticed changes in her body about four years ago and underwent medical tests, which confirmed the presence of Y chromosome in her body.

While men have X and Y sex chromosomes, women have two X chromosomes. Doctors had said she had gender dysphoria and advised her to undergo a sex reassignment surgery.

Salve had earlier approached the state police department to grant her leave to undergo the sex-change surgery. The department had turned down her plea as the eligibility criteria for men and women constables was different, including height and weight requirements. In November 2017, she had moved the Bombay High Court seeking that directions be issued to the state police to grant her leave.

However, the high court had directed her to approach the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal since it was a service matter.

Salve received a letter from the state home department on June 10, allowing her to go on leave to undergo the surgery, following which she got herself admitted to St George’s Hospital on May 25.