Karnataka approves policy to safeguard rights of transgenders

The Karnataka cabinet today cleared the State Policy for Transgenders, 2017, aimed at bringing the community into the mainstream of the society and providing its members with a secured life.

The policy had been drafted in compliance with a Supreme Court order, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra told reporters here after a cabinet meeting.

"They face insecurity, discrimination, insults, anxiety, suicidal tendencies. Therefore, this policy aims at bringing them into the mainstream of the society and provide them with a secured life," he said.

The different categories of transgenders mentioned in the policy include "jogappa, jijra, female to male, male to female, inter-sex, kothis, jogtas, shivashakti and aravanis".

The policy aims to create awareness about the transgender community in all the educational institutions of the state, reach out to the family members through anganwadi workers to sensitise them about trans-children, bring into place a monitoring committee or cell at the educational institutions to address the issues of discrimination, sexual abuse and violence against transgenders.

It also moots defining the indicators for a friendly policy, which goes beyond non-discrimination, and to include the transgender community in the 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan', Right to Education and similar efforts to promote literacy.

Jayachandra, quoting from the document, said, "All levels of the formal education system should have reservations for transgender students."

The cabinet also decided to recommend to the governor for a premature release of 93 life convicts from various central jails in the state on the ground of good behaviour.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait, who also addressed the media, said in view of the state Assembly polls due early next year, the schedule for the SSLC (class 10) and PUC (class 12) examinations had been fixed.

This had also been brought to the notice of the Election Commission (EC), so that there was no clash of dates, he added.

Sait said the PUC exam was scheduled from March 1-16 and the SSLC from March 23-April 4.

Stating that the preliminary notification in this regard had been issued and public comments on the same invited by November 25, the minister said the final notification would be issued after the due process.

He added that while seven lakh students would be appearing in the PUC examination, 9,60,000 students would appear in the SSLC exams this year.