New Delhi: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued an advisory to the Centre, State governments and Union Territory administrations to ensure the welfare of transgender Persons.
In the advisory, the Rights body has observed that one of the primary concerns faced by transgender persons in the country is that despite the legal advancements, they continue to grapple with discrimination at various places like employment disparities, limited access to healthcare, and exclusion from social circles, a communique issued by the NHRC said.
The Commission, in a letter to the Secretaries in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Chief Secretaries of States and Administrators of Union Territories, has asked for the implementation of its recommendations in letter and spirit, and sought action taken report within two months.
The advisory has focused on six key areas for action by the Centre, States and UT administrations to ensure transgender persons get access to education, healthcare, employment, inclusivity, welfare, and grievance redressal.
Some of the key recommendations include, single trans child of a deceased government employee or pensioner, may be treated as an unmarried daughter for the family pension and other benefits; transgender persons should be allowed to inherit ancestral agricultural land; multi-purpose identity cards may be provided to the transgenders to help the access government schemes and other benefits.
“Set up Transgender Welfare Board under the Section 10(1) of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020. Reach out to the family member of transgenders through Anganwadi workers to sensitize them about trans-children public to be sensitized through educational campaigns,” the NHRC advisory said.
Establish a Transgender Protection Cell under the Director General of Police or his/ her nominee in the State to monitor cases of offences against Transgender Persons; adequate steps may be taken to deal with the complaint of sexual harassment of transgender persons; a policy should be formulated to address the issues of violence, discrimination and harassment at educational institutions by protecting gender non-conforming students from bullying, harassment or other forms of violence, it said.
“Include ‘Third Gender’ as an identity category of the Transgender community seeking jobs in various civil services and to enable them to apply and appear in entrance examinations. Besides, wide publicity is to be given to the National Career Service Portal amongst the Transgender community,” the Rights body said.
Among others, all public places should have separate washrooms for transgender persons. Provide an exclusive platform for transgender persons to showcase their talent in cultural events and also to consider Old age home facilities for the transgender community.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs may consider incorporating welfare activities of Transgender Persons explicitly in Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013, which provides the list of activities that can be included for making expenditures for Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) activities, the communique said.
