Hold wider consultations on provisions of bill: Telangana Transgender Samithi

Hyderabad: Telangana Transgender Samithi (TTS) on Saturday appealed to the Government of India to extend the deadline for submission of comments on Rights of Transgender Person Bill 2016 on Saturday. TTS leader Vyjayanti said that the Bill on transgender has been unanimously passed in the Rajya Sabha on December 30, 2015 and the government January 4, 2016 as deadline for the consultation and submission for comments.

Giving such a short time to work out on the Bill was not correct, she said. “The government should extend the deadline and hold wider consultations on the provisions of the Bill with leaders of the community across the country,” she stated.

The Telangana Hijra Samiti, however, welcomes few new sections by the government on the rights of Transgender in the bill and also commented on few other aspects which were found to be dangerous to the community. According to the community members, issues related to transgender identity, violence, employment, commissions and courts in the new Bill has put them in worry.

For example, the mechanism of identifying transgender was opposed by them. As per the new Bill, the government would setup district-level identifying committee which would be headed by district Collector and would have a psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker and other medical representatives to identify the transgender. The community members said that as per the earlier judgments, a court affidavit was enough for declaration of the transgender and that must be followed as same.