MHA SEEKS PARAMILITARY FORCES’ RESPONSE ON RECRUITING TRANS PERSONS

NEWDELHI: The Union home ministry has sought views of central paramilitary forces (CAPF) for recruiting transgender persons as assistant commandants, according to a letter written on Wednesday.

In the letter, the ministry asked for Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)’s comments for adding “transgender” as a category, in addition to male and female, to recruitment rules ahead of the annual examination for recruiting assistant commandants in December. HT has seen a copy of the letter.

The comments will be shared with the Union Public Service Commission, which conducts the exams, for incorporating the transgender category in relevant application forms, if the ministry gets a positive response, officials aware of the matter said.

The government first wants to recruit transgender people for officer-rank positions before hiring transgender troopers and sub-inspectors, they added.

The officials said there is currently no provision for hiring transgender persons for the central paramilitary forces.

In December, Parliament passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, which said no establishment shall discriminate against transgender persons in matters relating to employment, recruitment, promotion, and other related issues.

But many activists protested the law, saying its provisions violated the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Nalsa vs Union of India. In view of the law, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in April asked all central government departments to include “transgender” as a separate category for recruitment for all posts, including civil services.

A DoPT order said the matter was under the government’s consideration for some time.

The Civil Services Examination Rules, 2020, notified in February

included “transgender” as a separate category.

K Durga Prasad, a former CRPF chief, welcomed the move. “This is the time to give equal opportunities. The only thing we have to take care of is setting different parameters like training, job profile, etc,” he added.

Chayanika Shah, an activist, said, “By doing this, we are creating a category and you remain in a certain category forever. The question is that once people come in, how do you deal with it? Why recruit only assistant commandants and not other categories?”

The one-million strong central paramilitary forces are deployed for securing borders as well as for counter-insurgency operations.