Railways to withdraw 'transfemale' and 'transmale' options from reservation forms

Presently, if gender gets erroneously captured in the train ticket,  such tickets can either be transferred to family members or can be cancelled.
For representational purposes (File | PTI)
For representational purposes (File | PTI)

CHENNAI: Railways has rolled back its decision to identify transgender passengers as transfemale and transmale in the reservation forms. Going forward, the reservation forms will only have the option of ‘T’ to identify transgender people. The decision is said to have been taken as the present reservation form has created confusion among reservation clerks and travel ticket examiners while authenticating the passengers.

Presently, the paper ticket reservation form, which came into effect in May this year, provides an option for transgenders to mention their sex as T (M) - T (F) denoting transmale and transfemale respectively.  A separate gender identity option for transpersons was introduced in the Railways in 2016. The new reservation form, which was received by the Southern Railway on Monday has removed gender option within the transgender category.

“The subcategory option has led to lot of confusion across the country. In a few cases,  passengers, who choose the transfemale gender, got recorded as females while female passengers got marked as transfemales. Besides, gender identity of transfemale and transmale also get interchanged on some occasions,” said a senior railway official. 

The change of gender identity has led to lot of confusions during ticket verification. “When there is a gender mismatch, in a majority of cases, travel ticket examiners allow passengers to travel after verifying the other credentials. But in some cases, the passengers will be treated as ticketless travellers,” explained the official.

Presently, if gender gets erroneously captured in the train ticket,  such tickets can either be transferred to family members or can be cancelled. “There is no provision to change the gender in the tickets. In some railway zones, the chief commercial supervisor or station master is allowed to approve the change of gender,” said sources.

Besides, the new form also provides another option under the choice of berth column to chose berth option for children aged between 5 and 12. “If the passengers chose berth, they would be charged fully. If they book the tickets without berths, the tickets will be charged only 50 per cent,” added the official.

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