Activists demand revised draft of transgender bill

Several transgender, intersex, lesbian and bisexual activists have written to the standing committee on social justice and empowerment to redraft the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, advising it to hold in-depth consultations with the transgender and intersex communities before “it can be considered as sufficiently addressing the needs of the communities it is intended to benefit.”

This is the second time activists have written to the committee; the first being a letter on October 20 which was signed by 33 organisations and 105 individuals. The October 20 letter condemned the dilution of the private member’s bill by Tiruchi Siva which was passed in the Rajya Sabha in April 2015 in a historic vote, becoming the first bill by a private member in over four decades to be passed in the Parliament.

The government’s bill, introduced a year later, was a watered down version. It takes away the critical provision of self-identification, special courts for transgenders, free legal aid, and the right of transgenders to file a case of harassment under the IPC in cases of discriminative violence.

In the October 20 letter, organisations objected to the deletion of a transgender’s right to self-identification, mentioned in the Siva bill. They also objected to the criminalisation of begging, which many are dependent upon.

Further, they condemned the government’s failure to recognise trans people who are assigned the female gender at birth.

They also pointed out that the government’s bill does not recognise the special needs of transgender and gender nonconforming children, and makes it mandatory for transgenders to stay with their natal family, which often is the root of discrimination and abuse. Violence in the community, too is not addressed, and an implementation committee, National Commission for Trans-Persons, mentioned in Siva’s bill, is missing.

“For all the above reasons and the ones that we have stated earlier in our letter, this bill cannot be passed in this form under any circumstances. For now, we urge the standing committee to send the bill in its current form back to the drafting board​,” reads the letter.

The recommendations 

The rights groups held a national consultation on  November 1, 2016, released a set of recommendations. A panel consisting of Justice Radhakrishnan, Pramada Menon, Akshay Khanna, Chinju Ashwati, Sunil Mohan and Grace Banu heard depositions from representatives from Bihar, Assam, Delhi, Punjab Maharashtra, Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Telangana and West Bengal.

n Rename the bill to “The Intersex and Transgender Rights Bill”. The panel condemned conflation of the identities of intersex and transgender in the bill.

n A separate chapter on people with intersex variations. The process to assert one’s self-identification be made simple, as different states have different norms.

n Retain provisions of special statuses of OBC, socially backward classes (SBC) and economically backward classes (EBC)​ to transgender people. The government’s bill remains silent on transgender people of the Dalit community.

Key shortcomings

The government’s Bill takes away the critical provision of self-identification, special courts for transgenders, free legal aid, and the right of transgenders to file a case of harassment under the IPC in cases of discriminative violence, activists for trans persons have alleged. 

It also criminalises begging, which several transgenders  are dependent upon and fails to recognise trans people who are assigned the female gender at birth.