Government Enacts ‘The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019’ to Safeguard Transgender Rights and Welfare

In order to address the issues regarding Transgender Persons, the Government enacted ‘The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019’ and Rules thereof, so as to provide for protection of rights of transgender persons and their welfare. The Act and Rules mandates formulation of welfare schemes and programmes that are transgender sensitive and non-stigmatizing, ensuring their dignified and respectable place in the society, along with provisions for non-discrimination in educational institutions and employment, providing healthcare services and several welfare measures. The population of ‘other’ as per Census 2011 is 4,87,803. The category of ‘other’ not only includes ‘transgender’ but also any person who desires to record sex under the category of ‘other’.

The plans and schemes being implemented for the welfare of transgender to include them in the mainstream of society are as given below:

1. A National Council for Transgender Persons was set up to advise the Central Government on the formulation of policies and legislation with respect to Transgender persons, monitor and evaluate the impact of policies designed for achieving equality and full participation, review and coordinate the activities of all the Departments of the Government and non-Governmental organisations. This committee has been reconstituted vide notification dated 16.11.2023.
2. A scheme, Support for Marginalized Individual for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) with sub-component ‘Central sector scheme for comprehensive rehabilitation for welfare of transgender persons’ is being implemented. This scheme has various components for welfare of transgender persons namely Skill Development, Composite Medical Health, safe shelters in the form of Garima Grehs, National Portal for Transgender persons through which Transgender certificates are issued, setting up Transgender Protection Cells and other welfare measures.
3. Memorandum of Understanding with National Health Authority (NHA) for convergence with Ayushman Bharat scheme of NHA has been done for providing health facilities under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) scheme to Transgender persons.
4. The Department has set up 12 Garima Grehs, shelter homes for destitute transgender persons in 9 States namely Delhi, Odisha, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal (2) and Maharashtra (3).
5. National Portal for Transgender Persons is launched to issue Transgender certificates and ID cards to eligible Transgender persons. This is an end to end online process where the applicant can apply for the TG certificate and also download the certificate after issue without any requirement to go to any office of issue. This portal had more than 45 Lakh visitors and as of now, 21330 certificates have been issued.
6. So far, 11 Transgender Protection Cells are setup by States/UTs of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Andaman & Nicobar, Sikkim, Punjab, Mizoram and Uttar Pradesh.
7. As of now 19 Transgender Welfare Boards (TWB) have been setup by States/UTs of Rajasthan, Mizoram, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Maharashtra, Kerala, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman & Nicobar.
8. Advisories are issued to all Union Ministries and States/UTs for designating Grievance Redressal Officer, for non-discrimination of transgender persons and providing option of “Transgender” along with options of male and female wherever any gender related information is collected.
9. Department has issued ‘Equal Opportunities Policy for Transgender Persons’ to ensure that the Transgender community has equal access to employment opportunities.