NGOs demand review of bill for Transgenders’ rights protection

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) Various NGOs working for therights of transgenders in the country today urged the Ministryof Social Justice and Empowerment to review the Transgender(Protection of Rights) Bill 2016, before passing it. According to NGO Sangma, the bill which was recentlyintroduced in Parliament has not offered any clear directionon how different departments would co-ordinate to implementits provisions and how the community will access those welfaremeasures. "If we do not remove the numerous lacunae, loopholes,drawbacks and disadvantages it could lead to miscarriage ofjustice rather than setting right the decades and centuries ofsocial injustice and discrimination," said Rajesh Umadevi,Program Director of Sangama. The experts in the sector also objected to the definitionof transgender in the bill. "A transgender person has been defined as someone who isneither wholly female nor wholly male, a combination of femaleor male or neither female nor male. This is inappropriate andderogatory," Nish Gulur, a trans woman working in the sectorsaid. She went on to state that the Bill in its present formdoes not recognize the self identification process and makes aprovision for a District Screening Committee led by a DistrictMagistrate to certify a person’s third gender identity. "With the team comprising of a psychiatrist, a medicalofficer, other government officials and another transgenderperson, this is tantamount to the violation of Supreme Courtjudgement and Constitutional right," Gulur said. Similar reservations were also voiced by Christy Raj,trans man and Media and Advocacy Associate, who said, "the newbill is silent on the violence committed by police and familymembers and does not define the word abuse". Saampurna Behura, Head Socio-legal initiative, ReachLawlamented that all the effort made in the framing of 2015 Billto address vital concerns such as violence against transgenderpersons occurs within the family and even by the state itselfhave not been incorporated in the present Bill. The Bill, which is a redrafted version of the "Rights ofTransgender Persons Bill 2015", following the direction of thelandmark 2014 National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)judgement by the Supreme Court of India, wherein thehonourable court directed the government to draft polices toredress the inequities and rights violations faced by India’stransgender communities. PTI GJSRG