India’s transgender community says new law doesn’t protect members and may even make them more vulnerable
- Anyone who ‘compels or entices a transgender person’ to beg could face jail time of up to two years – a clause that campaigners say could be misused to imprison transgender people
- A prison term of six months to two years would be handed down for sex crimes against transgender people – a much lighter punishment than for similar offences against women
India’s transgender community said on Tuesday a proposed law aimed at protecting their rights could leave the marginalised population more vulnerable to abuse, and urged lawmakers to review the bill.
The Transgender Persons Bill was passed on Monday by India’s lower house of parliament – where the ruling party holds a majority – and is expected to be tabled in the upper house before its winter session ends on January 8.
Critics say the bill has many problems, including denying the right of people to self-identify their gender.
Instead it proposes that a “screening committee” of experts issue identity certificates to individuals, which activists say could leave transgender people vulnerable to abuse.
“[The bill] … reinforces and deepens the apartheid that exists in this country against trans persons,” said Anindya Hajra, a transgender woman and activist at Pratyay Gender Trust. “The bill is violative, it is not protection. We reject the bill in its present form.
India has about 2 million transgender people, according to the 2011 census. And although the Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that transgender people have equal rights under the law, they are often shunned and many survive through begging or sex work.