Bills on transgenders, disabled in monsoon session: Gehlot

The government is working on an umbrella policy for transgenders and a bill on their rights would be introduced in parliament in the coming monsoon session, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said on Thursday.

Two bills on the rights of disabled people and atrocities on Dalits would also be taken up, Gehlot said at a press conference organised to list the achievements of his ministry in the last one year.

The ministry - designated as the nodal ministry for transgender persons - was formulating an umbrella scheme for the educational, economic and social empowerment of the transgender community, he said.

"We want to provide all facilities to transgenders that are given to Scheduled Castes and Tribes," he added.

"A committee formed under the chairmanship of a senior official to make an in-depth study of the problems faced by the transgenders submitted its report on January 27 last year. An inter-ministerial committee has been constituted for the implementation of its recommendations," the minister said.

Two bills on rights of disabled people and atrocities against Dalits were pending with parliamentary committees and would also be taken up in the monsoon session, the minister said, adding that loans were being provided to the disabled to make them self-sufficient.

The ministry had formulated a draft bill to prevent begging. "The Persons in Destitution (Protection, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill of 2015' was sent to state governments on April 17 for their comments," Gehlot said.

The minister said that at least four to five of the 81 NGOs working with his ministry have been found guilty of misusing funds.

Gehlot said the Modi government also planned large-scale celebrations of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary. The year-long celebrations will end on April 14 next year.

He said that plans were also afoot to buy the residential property in London where Ambedkar lived while studying in the London School of Economics during 1921-22.