This year, the Transgender Day of Remembrance was observed in India amidst news that India’s government had rejected the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016. The Centre reportedly plans to introduce the Bill in its current form during the Winter Session of Parliament. This is a blow to society and the transgender community.
The Bill as it stands is deeply flawed and shows a total lack of understanding of gender, sex and sexuality and of the struggles of India’s transgender community. It also incorporates little of the spirit of the Supreme Court’s NALSA judgment, which despite its problematic elements, upheld the right of self-identification of gender. The Bill betrays its lack of sincerity from the start.
Its definition of transgender conflates transgender and intersex identities, clubbing them under one term, in the most offensive manner possible. Contradicting the NALSA judgment, it creates a district-level screening committee for certification of transgender people, a violative requirement created to prevent ‘misuse’ of entitlements. And there is the anti-beggary clause that further criminalises a marginalised community, members of which sometimes turn to begging due to lack of education or employment options.
Finally, the Bill ignores the SC’s directions on reservations in education and employment, and proposes minimal penalties to crimes against transgender persons (six months to two years) instead of incorporating penalties from appropriate IPC sections (such as against rape or sexual harassment) or proposing that IPC sections be expanded to cover the crimes.
Worse, redressal and oversight mechanisms are barely defined. The very purpose of the Bill in its current form is baffling and if passed, it is likely to do more harm than good. The Standing Committee and the transgender community have made several necessary recommendations that ought to be incorporated. One hopes the government reconsiders its position.