Rajya Sabha Equal Rights For Transgenders

In a first in last 45 years, the Rajya Sabha has unanimously passed a private member’s Bill seeking to protect rights and dignity of transgenders. Moved by DMK leader Tiruchi Siva, the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014, won support from members cutting across the party lines who all asked the government to take steps to bring the community facing social stigma and ostracism into the mainstream. Parliament has so far passed only 14 private members’ Bills. The last private member’s Bill passed by Parliament was the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Bill, 1968, that became an Act on August 9, 1970.

Highlights

The Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014, proposes creation of national and state-level commissions for transgender communities among other facilities. It provides for the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive national policy to ensure overall . welfare of transgenders by the state. In 2014, the Supreme Court had ordered transgenders be treated on par with the OBC community and extended all benefits, including education and job quotas

Analysis

Driven into begging and prostitution, the transgender community not just faces the ridicule from society but is also denied the basic rights normally enjoyed by men and women of the country. What further makes the Bill’s passage even more significant is the rarity of such instruments ever make through Parliament. A miniscule number of such Bills ever get debated on the floor of the House. A private member's Bill is a proposed law introduced by a member who is not part of the executive branch — the government. For the Bill to become a law, it will now have to be moved in the Lower House either by the government or a Lok Sabha member, again as a private member’s Bill.

Though laws alone do not change mindsets, setting parameters of social equality will guarantee a sense of dignity to a community that is humiliated for no fault of its own, forcing its members to hide in shame and anonymity. The last census, in a first-of-its-kind exercise, showed only about 4.9 lakh transgenders, of which 55,000 were found to be in the 0-6 population. The fact is, close to two million transgenders living in the country do not wish to disclose their gender identity for fear of being treated unfairly. Instances of transgenders dying before receiving any treatment due to the uncertainty about which ward they should be admitted to, or, rape victims not even getting examined abound, because doctors are scared of them. 

The curriculum for medical education should incorporate a few chapters on the health issues of the community. The transgender children are ensured admission under the RTE Act, and employment under the OBC category, but the ground reality still remains unchanged. Section 377 of the IPC is being misused by the police and other authorities against them on a large scale. The social stigma attached to the transgenders should not allow violations of their rights. The government should have provision for penalising those who discriminate against them, so that even though late in recognising their rights of equality, we do not falter in protecting their dignity.

By: Vishal