India Amends Trans Protection Bill, Removing Right To Self-Identification

India has amended its Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, redefining which people deserve to be protected by the law as transgender and omitting “persons with different sexual orientations and self-perceived sexual identities.”

Amendments to 2019 Bill were passed on March 25 by the Rajya Sahba, Indian Parliament’s Upper House, after clearing the Lower House on Tuesday.

Passed without support or consultation from India’s transgender community or the National Council for Transgender Persons, the Bill also limits the determination of trans identity as defined by a state-mandated board of “experts”.

Recognised socio-cultural identities including kinner, hijra, aravani, jogta and eunuch, as well as those with government-specified intersex characteristics, will be the only transgender people “qualified” to be protected by law.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar told India Today the Bill was rewritten to ensure the protection of “only those who face social boycott due to biological issues.”

“This Bill will bring administrative clarity and protect the rights of transgender persons,” he said. “[It] is not merely a legal reform but a pathway to justice for those who have long faced social exclusion and discrimination due to their identity.”

However, opposing activists and politicians say it contradicts the Supreme Court’s landmark 2014 ruling to affirm the right of transgender people to self-identify, which was further codified in the unamended 2019 bill.

“This Bill is nothing but trashy colonial legislation,” said MP Saket Gokhale from opposing party All India Trinamool Congress.

 

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“I will tell you how the government makes a bill. They don’t listen to the people who are going to be affected by it. They look at social media, and what’s happening in America, because we have surrendered to Donald Trump.

“If Donald Trump says there are two genders, our government will say there are two genders. We don’t mind if we are going back in time. This country has a glorious history allowing people to recognise their gender identify, but if now Trump has said it, he must have thought it through.”

Queer Indians from across the world reel

Two members from the National Council for Transgender Persons, Kalki Subramaniam and Rituparna Neog, have cited the “regressive” bill in their resignations from the organisation, saying it is “a step backward for our fundamental rights to self-identification and dignity.”

“I cannot be a part of something that refused to listen to the community,” former North East representative Neog, told The Hindu. “As a statutory representative, my primary mandate is to advise the Government on legislation affecting our lives. The decision to move this Bill forward without any formal consultation with me or other community representatives of the NCTP undermines the very purpose for which this Council was established.”

Vivek Nigam, President of Queer South Asians of Melbourne, said the trans community in India has been left “devastated” by the changes.

“In the midst of global energy crisis, an LPG shortage and ongoing war; Indian government fast tracked a misnomer bill – called Trans Rights Bill- with an intention to being American style state control over trans people,” Nigam said.

“For years the government has claimed trans rights is not a priority as it affects a very small number of people, but when it came to restricting trans rights they were able to find resources to push the bill through the parliament despite strong opposition from the community.”