Lok Sabha passes transgender rights bill, community says it's violative

Lok Sabha passes transgender rights bill, community says it's violative 'This Bill is not actually giving us any rights, but legalising the atrocities committed on us'

On Monday, the Lok Sabha passed the Transgender Persons Bill, 2016. In the eyes of transgender and gender non-binary activists, this is an act of doublespeak because the Bill, if it goes through the Rajya Sabha, will not only fail to protect the rights of transgender people in India, it will actively violate these rights.

Activists from the community have condemned the passing of the Bill in its current form, and are calling on the government to withdraw it from consideration in the Rajya Sabha and instead pass the private member’s bill drafted by Tiruchi Siva in the Lok Sabha.Why should a community so vociferously oppose a Bill that is drafted in the name of the protection of its rights? For those who celebrated the passing of the 2014 Supreme Court judgement affirming the rights of transgender people, the answer is obvious.

Although the NALSA judgment was flawed in its own ways, it made some incredible strides in the judicial recognition of the fundamental rights of transgender people. It affirmed the self-determination of gender identity, which upended commonsense notions about transgender identities only being valid if certified by the medical establishment.

It recognised the intense discrimination faced by transgender citizens and called for access to education, employment, healthcare and protection from violence. It recognised that affirmative action is needed for trans people across the country and that reservations in education and employment were even more necessary for those transgender people who were marginalised on the basis of caste.

In spirit and letter, the Supreme Court judgment was a huge victory for transgender people, who face intense stigma, discrimination and violence across the country.The passing of the current Bill completely shatters the hard-won victory of the Supreme Court judgement, both in spirit and READ MORE ON BS / BUSINESS STANDARD