A committee, under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has been constituted to redraft the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2015.
The Committee, also comprising two Joint Secretaries from the Law Ministry, a Joint Secretary each from Health and Social Justice and Empowerment Ministries and members from Lawyers Collective, will evaluate the suggestions made at the pre-legislative consultation meeting held on January 18, which was chaired by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot.
"We had received several inputs from the stakeholders concerned during the pre-legislative consultation meeting on January 18, following which the committee was constituted to redraft the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2015," said a senior Ministry official.
As per the current draft Bill, transgenders who by birth do not belong to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes may be declared as Backward Class and would be entitled to reservation under the existing ceiling of OBC category.
"Transgenders will also not be prevented from competing for seats which are not reserved for them," says the draft Bill.
As per the Bill, transgenders will be declared as the third gender and would be given the option to identify themselves as 'man', 'woman' or 'transgender' as well as the right to choose any of the options independent of surgery or hormones.
Only the nomenclature 'transgender' will be used and 'other or 'others' should not be used, the Bill stated.