Transgender Persons Bill has let down the community’s long struggle for self respect.
The passage of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, has caused great disapointment to the transgender community in India that had urged the Rajya Sabha to refer the Bill to a select committee.
The Bill failed to incorporate crucial recommendations of the Parliament Standing Committee and several depositions by the transgender and intersex community. According to the Bill, a transgender person “may make an application to the District Magistrate for a certificate of identity indicating the gender as ‘transgender’” and a revised certificate may be obtained “if a transgender person undergoes surgery to change gender either as a male or female”. This is in direct violation of NALSA v Union of India that had affirmed the right to self-determination of gender as male, female or transgender without the mandate of any medical certificate or sex-reassignment surgery (SRS).
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