On the night of 21st August 2020, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment issued a gazette notification[i] stating the constitution of the National Council for Transgender Persons, a requirement under Section 16 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. The aim of the Council is to formulate policies, programmes, legislation and projects regarding members of the community for achieving equality and full participation by them.
Other than the abovementioned aim, the Act prescribes various other functions of the Council. It includes: monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons; review and coordinate the activities of all the departments of the government and other governmental and non-governmental organisations dealing with matters relating to transgender persons; to redress the grievances of transgender persons, and to perform other such functions as may be prescribed by the Centre.
The notification by the Centre stated that the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot would be the Chairperson of the Council while the vice-chairperson will be the junior minister in the Ministry. The other members would include officials of the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, Home Affairs, Housing and Urban Affairs, Minority Affairs, Human Resources Development, Rural Development and Labour and Employment, the Department of Legal Affairs, the Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare and the NITI Aayog. The council also includes five nominated members from the transgender community — Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Gopi Shankar Madurai, Meera Parida, Zainab Javid Patel and Kak Chingtabam Shyamcand Sharma. According to the Act, the members shall hold office for a term of 3 years from his date of nomination.
R Subramanyam, Union social justice secretary, said: “The transgender welfare board would guide the government in welfare schemes for them. This is a landmark event.”
