'Withdraw Transgender protection Bill'

The Transgender community under the aegis of Parivarthan Charitable Trust Mangaluru staged a protest in front of the DC’s Office on Friday opposing the ‘Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2018’.

The protesters alleged that the Bill that was passed in the Parliament violates fundamental rights of transgender persons enshrined in the Constitution. The members shouted slogans against the government demanding justice. Community members and activists called on the government to withdraw the Bill or send it for review.

Speaking to DH, Sanjana, winner of the ‘Parivarthan Trans Queen 2018’ Beauty Pageant hailing from Dandeli, said that the entire Bill is problematic. Gender self-determination has been done away with, begging has been criminalised and there is no recognition of a person’s choice of family in cases where their own family disowns them.

The bill is harsh on the transgender community and might led to several suicide attempts among the community members, she said.

The bill upholds the criminalisation of transgender for organised begging, while denying them opportunities in education, employment, healthcare and so on, via reservation, she added.

It violates the constitutional rights of transgender persons to live wherever they want. The bill has created a two-tier system within the transgender community, wherein persons who have not had Sex Reassignment Surgery, can only identify as transgender, and that too, only after scrutiny and certification by a District Screening Committee, and those seeking to identify as male or female need to have had sex reassignment surgery, she added.