Centre sets up national council to help empower transpersons

NEWDELHI: The Centre has constituted the national council for transgender persons, headed by the Union social justice minster and comprising representatives from 10 central departments, five states and members of the community.

The council – India’s first and formed under Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 – was announced in a gazette notification issued late on Friday.

According to the legislation, the council has five main functions -- advising the central government on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons; monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons; reviewing and coordinating the activities of all the departments; redressing grievances of transgender persons; and performing such other functions as prescribed by the Centre.

The council will have joint secretary-level members from the ministries of health, home, minority affairs, education, rural development, labour and law. In addition, there will be a member from the department of pensions, Niti Aayog, National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women.

Representatives from five states or Union Territories, on a rotational basis, will be members of the commission.

The first such clutch comprises Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura and Gujarat.

Five members of the community and five experts, from nongovernmental organisations, have also been named to the commission.

The tenure of the community members and expert shall be three years.