WITHDRAW BILL TO AMEND TRANSGENDER RIGHTS LAW

THE Supreme Court’s NALSA (2014) verdict recognised the right of self-identification as male, female or transgender.

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The verdict was a watershed moment for the marginalised LGBTQIA+ community in India. Last week, a Bill introduced to amend the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019 weakened that right. While the 2019 Act is based on the NALSA verdict and recognises the right of self-identification, the proposed amendment regressively states that care has to be taken so that “such identification cannot be extended on the basis of any acquirable characteristics, or personal choice, or claimed self-perceived identity of an individual”. The Bill seeks to ‘define’ transgender persons only as those “having such socio-cultural identities”, persons who are intersex, and persons who have been “compelled” to “assume, a