The Transgender Persons Bill misses key demands of the community

On December 17, 2018, almost exactly a year after we had mobilised a nationwide protest against the Transgender Persons Bill, 2016, I was notified that the Lok Sabha was debating the Bill with 27 amendments proposed by the government. This Bill is now pending before the Rajya Sabha, along with the Trafficking of Persons Bill, 2018 — both are a source of serious concern for the transgender community. Members from transgender community protesting against the Transgender Persons Bill, New Delhi, December 17, 2017 At the heart of our disappointment is the Bill’s contravention of the 2014 Supreme Court National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India judgment, which upheld the right of transgender persons to self-identify their gender, and directed states to uphold this without mandating any form of bodily transition like surgery or hormonal therapy. The Bill creates a two-tier system within the transgender community, where everyone must first apply to the magistrate to be recognised as transgender, and only those who are recognised as such may apply to be recognised as man or woman, the latter contingent upon providing proof of sex reassignment surgery. The Bill does not even define or penalise discrimination, while being discriminatory in how it penalises sexual violence against transgender persons with jail time ranging from six months to two years in duration, in comparison to the punishment of seven years to life term for sexual assault on cis-gender women in the Indian Penal Code.