Lok Sabha passes Transgender Persons Bill with 27 changes

Lok Sabha passes Transgender Persons Bill with 27 changes

News:

The Lok Sabha has passed the The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 with 27 amendments

Important Facts:

About Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016

• The bill aims at defining the transgender people and prohibiting discrimination against them. Through this Bill the Government has evolved a mechanism for their social, economic and educational empowerment.

Key features

1. The bill defines transgender as “whose gender does not match with the gender assigned at birth and includes trans-men, trans-women, gender-queers, and other sociocultural identities.”
2. According to the bill, a person would have the right to choose to be identified as a man, woman or transgender, irrespective of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and hormonal therapy.
3. The bill states that a transgender person has to obtain a Certificate of Identity which will confer rights and be proof of recognition of identity as a transgender person.
4. The bill calls for central or state governments to provide welfare schemes and programmes to facilitate and support livelihood for transgender persons. This will include vocational training and self-employment.
5. A National Council for Transgender (NCT) persons will be set up to advise the central government on policies, and legislation related to transgender persons.

Major criticisms of the bill:

1. According to critics, the definition of transgender in the bill is incomplete and that other terms such as transmen and transwomen are not defined.
2. A major criticism of the bill is the provision that a person will be recognised as transgender on the basis of a certificate of identity issued through the district screening committee. The provision is contradictory as the bill also states that persons have right to chose ‘self-perceived gender identity’
3. The bill has also been criticised for being silent on granting reservations to transgender persons.

Additional Information

NALSA Judgement, 2014

1. The Supreme Court court deemed that individuals had the right to the self-identification of their sexual orientation. It ruled that the fundamental rights granted by the Constitution are equally applicable to transgenders who constitute the ‘third gender’.
2. The judgement also called for affirmative action in education, primary health care, and that transgenders be identified as beneficiaries of social welfare schemes.