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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
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- According to critics, the definition of transgender in the bill is incomplete and that other terms such as transmen and transwomen are not defined.
- 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’
- The bill has also been criticised for being silent on granting reservations to transgender persons.
Additional Information
NALSA Judgement, 2014
- 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’.
- The judgement also called for affirmative action in education, primary health care, and that transgenders be identified as beneficiaries of social welfare schemes.
