Trans Rights Amendment Bill: ‘We cannot be contained in black and white’

On April 15 2014 the streets were painted pink white and blue The Supreme Court had just delivered the NALSA judgment National Legal Services Authority v Union of India which made selfidentification the cornerstone of being transgender For a brief moment the law caught up with lived realityThen in 2019 we got the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act 2019 which set a threestep process for transgender certification NALSA is going to turn 12 in a few weeks It is at this hour that Dr Virendra Kumar cabinet minister for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment presents us with the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Amendment Bill 2026The Bill sets any and every progress made in the trans advocacy movement back by a century violates every international standard as well as our own countryrsquos precedents It claims to protect trans people and yet proposes to strip them of basic rights theyrsquove won after a decadeslong fightTomorrow this Bill might be taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha This is not abstract policy it will shape real lives real bodies real futures So read it Ask who it protects and who it leaves behind And then demand answers Call your representatives write to them question them Because laws like these do not pass in a vacuum mdash they pass when people look the other waylsquoYou cannot create welfare by excludingrsquoKanmani R Transgender lawyerThe trans community still doesnrsquot have economic protections of job reservations in India The SMILE scheme launched in 2022 provided free housing genderaffirming medical care and scholarships but the programme is drowning in red tape Instead of expanding the programme the Statersquos response seems to be that selfidentification leads to ldquomisuserdquo of the schemeKanmani RKanmani R a Chennaibased advocate specialising in trans rights says ldquoThe Bill proposes that trans persons undergo an external medical process Now by virtue of the definition the first step itself is to get medical procedurerdquo says Kanmani But not all trans people feel the need or can afford to transition surgically Making this a prerequisite ldquois in direct violation of the NALSA judgmentrdquo she addsThe process for registration could become more complicated evaluation by a Stateappointed medical board followed by its recommendation to the District Magistrate DM who can seek further expert review before issuing or withholding a certificate ldquoIn India a majority of trans people come from workingclass poor and marginalised backgrounds By introducing process after process the State is putting a trans person through immense pressure mdash itrsquos a form of social violence Welfare cannot be implicated by exclusionrdquoAnother major change is in Section 18 with the addition of clauses that criminalise forcing an adult or child to present as transgender through outward markers such as dress voice behaviour or ldquoby making them undergo medical procedures such as castrationrdquo ldquoThe National Crime Records Bureau has not provided any credible or publicly available data that clearly justifies the need for such specific offencesrdquo Kanmani says ldquoThe Bill seems to place trans persons within a framework of begging kidnapping and coercion which is unsavouryrdquoMembers of the transgender community stage a protest against the new Bill at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on March 16 PICGETTY IMAGESAnother concern is ldquothe requirement of medical institutions to furnish details of any person who has undergone genderaffirming surgery to the DMrdquo says Kanmani ldquoBut surgery is supposed to be a very private matter We are quite literally setting up a surveillance mechanismrdquo The lack of privacy coupled with outing allies are both equally upsetting she explainsldquoThe name of the Act suggests it should protect trans people But in this Bill abuse against a trans person is punishable by six months to two years whereas lsquoforcingrsquo someone to become trans carries a punishment of 10 years to liferdquoThe National Council of Transgender Persons ought to have been consulted before formulating any policy changes but Kanmani says ldquoTrans members have put out statements saying they were neither consulted nor informedrdquolsquoIt is a double whammyrsquoZainab Patel Trans activist from hijra communityZainab Patel a trans rights advocate and petitioner in the 2014 NALSA case says ldquoThe hijra community stands in solidarity with the trans community We realise that this is a model of medical and institutional gatekeeping Sooner or later everyone will get impacted by itrdquo she saysWith the Bill narrowing the definition of transgender identities does that mean trans persons must align with sociocultural groups for recognition ldquoThe hijra community will continue to be a safe space for those who identify with this communityrdquo Patel says ldquoAt the same time we are not conducting membership drives to get more community members We exist for those who identify as hijra and we have strived to be a safe haven for those identify as hijrardquoZainab PatelAccording to Patel on the one hand the Bill wants to help ldquogenuine oppressedrdquo sociocultural groups and on the other hand ldquoit doesnrsquot even include all the groups What about Jogappas in Maharashtra and Karnataka ShivShakthis in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh Sakhis in Odisha and Uttar PradeshrdquoPatel argues that this will lead to medical speculation even within the sociocultural communities ldquoIf I say I belong to the hijra community how will they verify it The only model that existed was in Tamil Nadu where initially the Transgender Welfare Board had senior gurus from the community who verifiedrdquo This model of communitybased verification was phased out and eventually abolished after the 2019 Act came into place ldquoWe donrsquot want such a model to come back This is a very dangerous precedent and I fear that people will start going to quacks now to conceal their surgery historyrdquoReferring to the amendments proposed in Section 18 Patel says ldquoTherersquos an implication that the community is going and trafficking people What the government is doing is a double whammy It looks like it favours sociocultural identities but the Bill also puts in so many checks and balances that ensure the community will automatically die outrdquolsquoIdentity is not biologicalrsquoAryan Somaiya Transaffirmative psychotherapist Founder of Guftagu TherapyA study published in the National Library of Medicine finds 50 per cent of them have attempted suicide at least once before their 20th birthdayPsychotherapist Aryan Somaiya says ldquoNo one really understands you It starts with your family then you get bullied at school then therersquos discrimination when yoursquore getting hired and itrsquos so much harder to find a partnerrdquoAryan SomaiyaIt seemed briefly like the government at least was starting to understand and support trans lives but all that seems poised to go out the window nowldquoIdentity is not biological gender is psychosocialrdquo says Somaiya ldquoMedical practitioners cannot verify gender Their role comes in only as a service provider when trans people need genderaffirming health care So how can a medical professional validate my gender This is not their subjectmatter expertiserdquoProposed changesTransgender lawyer Kanmani R explainsgtgt thinspOne would no longer be able to selfidentify as trans Instead the Bill proposes medical verification of trans folkgtgt thinspthinspThe Bill shrinks the definition of trans persons to these categories sociocultural identities kinner hijra aravani jogta those with intersex variations and those whose identity is ldquoforcedrdquo through mutilation castration or hormonal changesgtgt thinspthinspPrevious 3step process to get a trans ID now stretched into more complicated 5step systemgtgt thinspthinspCriminalises ldquoforcefulrdquo transgender identity by abducting mutilating harming or forcing either a minor or adult to present as trans and engage in begging servitude or labourgtgt thinspthinspMandatory reporting of genderaffirming surgery to the District Magistrate and the designated ldquoauthorityrdquoIs there a risk for doctorsDr Kanchan Pawar has 10 years of experience in providing genderaffirmative healthcare and is certified by the World Professional Association for Transgender HealthShe points to some ambiguities in the Bill ldquoIf I provide hormone treatment to a client it could be interpreted in the future as lsquoThis doctor encouraged or caused someone to transitionrsquo This creates medical ambiguity for practitioners like merdquoBecause of legal ambiguities Dr Pawar is putting treatments on hold ldquoIrsquom telling my clients that I would prefer to hold off on starting hormone therapy until I have more clarity about what this amendment means for medical practitionersrdquoAn already broken systemItrsquos chaosrdquo says a trans friend They feel safe enough to talk to us when we call to ask if they are doing okay ldquoTo be honest there is so much anger and distrust of the government of the media and all this for a scheme the SMILE scheme for genderaffirming care that most of us have not even been able to qualify forrdquo they sayOur friend had been trying to get genderaffirming care for the last three years but tells us that the documentation for this can take up to nine months They say ldquoDocumentation is the biggest hurdle The website keeps crashing and you need to call someone and inform them then they restart we lose weeks and weeks in this processrdquoWe reach out to a few who have despite the odds availed of benefits right from the transgender certificate to hormone replacement therapy to genderaffirming surgeries But tensions are high and they refuse to speak to us487803Population of transgender individuals in IndiaCensus data from 20118129Number of people whorsquove been rehabilitated in the SMILE scheme as of JanuaryPress Information BereauInputs from Arpika Bhosale