'Welfare of transgenders' to be handled by social justice min

The Centre has amended rules to include welfare of transgender persons in charter of work to be handled by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, following demands from civil society and transgenders to check incidents of social harassment and crime against the 'third gender'.
President Pranab Mukherjee has approved changes in Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, which describe the functioning of central government departments, in this regard.
The amended rules were notified recently by the Cabinet Secretariat.
There are about 4.88 lakh transgenders in India, as per 2011 census, officials said.
The Social Justice Ministry is finalising a bill for formulation and implementation of a comprehensive national policy for ensuring overall development of the transgender persons.

"Transgender should be declared as the third gender, and a transgender person should have the option to identify as 'man', 'woman' or 'transgender' as well as have the right to choose any of the options independent of surgery/hormones.

"Only the nomenclature 'transgender' should be used and nomenclatures like 'other' or 'others' should not be used," as per the draft 'The Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2015'.
Besides this, the National Rural Health Mission has been replaced with National Health Mission in the list of task assigned to Health Ministry, as per the Cabinet Secretariat's latest order.
The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched on April 12, 2005, to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care to the rural population, especially the vulnerable groups.