Alappuzha: The provision for authorising the district magistrate to issue certificate of identity of transgender persons in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, passed by the Rajya Sabha last week has raised deep concerns among the transgender community.
The section (certificate of identity for transgender person) in the bill, which waits for President's assent to become the law, makes it clear that "a transgender person may make an application to the district magistrate for certification of identity, indicating the gender as transgender". Revised certificate may be obtained only if the individual undergoes surgery to change their gender either as male or female.
The bill comes at a time when the landmark Supreme Court judgment in 2014, (National Legal Services Authority Vs the Union of India) recognised the rights of transgender persons and their "right to decide on their gender identity" (self identification).
Worse, the bill does not provide a mechanism to review or appeal against the decision of district magistrate If a transgender person is denied certificate of identity. This would mean that there is no remedy if a district magistrate rejects application of trans-person is by district magistrate, it is pointed out.
The bill, which defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth, has also removed the provision for a district screening committee and vested the power solely on the jurisdiction of the district magistrate. The procedure the district magistrate needs to follow to issue the certificate is not specified in the bill. The rules will be notified later.
Sreekutty Sreekumar, state president of Sexual and Gender Minority Federation, and also part of the Thiruvanatha-puram-based Oasis Cultural Society, said the newly passed bill was a hard blow to the self-esteem of the transgender community. "This is the violation of the Supreme Court judgment as well," Sreekumar said. "The meaning and implication of the term 'self-perceived gender equality' in the bill is unclear. Is this bill wants us to strip before the district magistrate to prove our identity? It provides no option of appeal against the district magistrate's decision. We want the Supreme Court's recognition of self-identification to be included in the bill since none of the non-transgender person ever wants to be recognised themselves as transgender. We will take up the matter with state minister for social justice to know whether state could amend the provision. Apart from this, we have decided to conduct a Raj Bhavan march in protest against the bill next week."
The bill recognises the offenses against transgenders like forced or bonded labour (excluding compulsory government service for public purpose), denial of use of public places, removal from household and village, physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economical abuse with the penalties ranging from imprisonment up to six months to two years and a fine. But the activist said the punishment was not enough. "Two-year punishment is pretty low and simple compared to penalty to the crime against children and women which invite even death penalty," the activist said.
According to the 2011 census, around 5lakh transgender persons are living in the country. The bill seeks to set up a National Council for Transgender Persons (NCT) consisting of Union minister for social justice as chairperson.
It has prohibited discrimination against a transgender person including denial of service and unfair treatment relating to education, employment, healthcare, access to goods, facilities, opportunities available to the public, right to movement, right to reside, rent or occupy property, opportunity to hold public and private offices and access to private and public establishments.
