Amended Bill on transgender rights sent to the Cabinet

The Social Justice Ministry has sent a Bill on transgender rights to the Cabinet after finalising nine amendments, including those in the definition of the term ‘transgender’, keeping with the recommendations of a Parliamentary panel, reports PTI.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill that has undergone interministerial consultation and was vetted by the law ministry has been sent to the Cabinet, a senior ministry official said.

The earlier definition of a transgender was “neither wholly male nor female, a combination of female or male, or neither female nor male and whose sense of gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at the time of birth”, has been removed, as per the advice of the standing committee, he said.

The official said according to the new definition proposed in the Bill, “a transgender means a person whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at birth and includes trans-man or trans-women (whether or not such persons has undergone sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy or laser therapy or such other therapy)”.

It also includes person with intersex variations, gender-queer and person having such socio-cultural identities such as ‘kinnar’, ‘hijra’, ‘aravani’ and ‘jogta’, he said.

The ministry has also done away with the provision of recommendation required from district screening committees for issuing certificate, if a transgender undergoes a surgery to change his or her gender.