NGOs urge MPs for speedy passage of Transgender's Rights Bill

Organisations representing trangenders and gender minorities here today urged parliamentarians to ensure speedy passage of the private member's Bill during the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, which is slated to begin on July 21.
Pressing for the passage of the Bill, which calls for equal rights and reservation to transgenders, they demanded that state governments provided reservations in education and employment to the community, in accordance with the directive of the apex court.
"We welcome Supreme Court's judgement last year in which transgenders were recognised as the third gender, but at the same time we urge the parliamentarians to support and ensure passage of Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014 for the welfare of the community," said Mallappa K, state coordinator of Karnataka Sexual Minority Forum.

Jeeva, a founder-member of V-CAN in Tamil Nadu which comprises 40 community-based organisations' (CBOs) run by transgender, sex workers among others, said, "Government should take serious note of the dropouts of transgender children as they suffer humiliation, even in their own families.
"School syllabus needs to be structured in a way that encourages more acceptance of transgender people in society," she said.
Explaining the significance of the policy commitments that have been made in the Bill and the SC judgement, Rajesh Umadevi, Director of Sangama, a Bangalore-based NGO working for the human rights of sexual minorities, said, "To translate the commitments into action, governments must constitute national and state-level transgender welfare board to implement reservations in education, provide employment for transgender persons and ensure social inclusion of all identities of sexual minorities, including trans-men, under the all encompassing term of 'Transgender'."

"Even though the private member's Bill was very encouraging and got widespread support from MPs, we want the government to set aside some budgetary allocation for us, as also a set up a welfare board for transgenders at the national level," said Umadevi.
The speakers also released here a report titled "Tracing the journey from Exclusion to inclusion", which highlights initiatives taken by organisations representing Transgender community from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.