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IMPROVING STATUS OF TRANSGENDER POPULATION
By PIB Delhi
In order to improve the status of the Transgender persons, the Ministry enacted “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019” and provisions of the same came into force on 10th Jan, 2020. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules 2020 were formulated and published in Gazette of India on 29 Sept, 2020.
On 21st Aug, 2020, National Council for Transgender Persons was constituted to advise Government on policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons.
The Ministry has launched National Portal for Transgender Persons on 25th November, 2020. Any Transgender applicant can obtain Certificate of Identity and Identity Card without any physical interface with the office of issue. The person who has been issued a certificate of identity are entitled to change the first name in the birth certificate and all other official documents relating to the identity of such person.
Ministry has initiated 12 pilot shelter homes namely ‘Garima Greh’: Shelter Home for Transgender Persons and provided financial assistance to community based organizations (CBOs) for setting up of these shelter homes. These pilot shelter homes are in States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. The main aim of these shelter homes is to provide safe and secure shelter to Transgender persons in need. These shelter homes provide basic amenities like food, medical care, and recreational facilities and also conduct capacity-building/ skill development programmes for Transgender persons. During lockdown period in COVID pandemic a helpline was also setup to provide psychological support through trained Psychologists to Transgender Persons in distress during Covid period.
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme “SMILE – Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”, which includes sub scheme -‘Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons’. The focus of the sub-scheme is on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities and intervention, counseling, education, skill development, economic linkages to the transgender persons.
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment does not maintain such information.
Chapter V, Section 9 of “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019” provides that “No establishment shall discriminate against any transgender person in any matter relating to employment including, but not limited to, recruitment, promotion and other related issues”. The Chapter VI, Section 14 of the Act also states that “the appropriate Government shall formulate welfare schemes and programmes to facilitate and support livelihood for transgender persons including their vocational training and self-employment”.
This information was given by The Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri A. Narayanaswamy in the Lok Sabha in a written reply today.
