Amended Transgenders Bill termed unconstitutional

Hyderabad: The representatives of LGBT groups including transgenders from the State on Wednesday came down heavily on the Central government for drafting a defective Human Trafficking Prevention Bill-2018.

The activists Vyjayanti, Chandramukhi, Laila and others, while addressing the media at Hyderguda, said that transgender, intersex and gender non-confirming community from across the country and allies were all opposed to the amended bill and added that it was more defective than the existing Act. They said that the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2018, passed in the Lok Sabha on December 17, should be more appropriately retitled as the “Transgender Persons (Violation of Rights) Bill, since it violated more rights than it protects.

The Bill, pending in Rajya Sabha now, violates the constitutional rights of transgender persons to live where they please, stating that even as adults with the right to free movement and association, ‘we must either stay with our parents or approach a court’. The Bill has completely ignored the critiques of the 2016 Bill, and the subsequent recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee. It stands in stark violation of the fundamental rights of transgender persons enshrined in the Constitution as equal citizens and also the judgment of the Apex court in Nalsa vs UOI in 2014, they contended.

They wanted the Centre to completely overhaul the two bills —The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill and the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 -- make them compliant with the NALSA verdict, and incorporate the community feedback given via Parliamentary Standing Committee process, before being presented again.