Govt mulls over making special cards for Trans community to link them to welfare schemes

PTI, Oct 18, 2020, 7:37 PM IST

New Delhi: The government is deliberating on making a special identity card for transgender community members that will help in liking them with various social welfare schemes, a member of the recently-constituted National Council for Transgender Persons said.

The Centre had in August constituted the National Council for Transgender Persons (NCTP) to formulate policies, programmes, draft legislation and projects regarding members of the community for achieving equality and full participation by them.

The first meeting of the NCTP was held through video conference on Thursday. It was chaired by Social Justice Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot.

Meera Parida, a member of the transgender community, representing the east region in the council, said discussions were held on various issues faced by the community in the hour-long meeting.

“Discussions were also held on introducing a transgender identity card that will link with them the social welfare schemes for the community. There will be a transgender identity card which will be linked to social welfare schemes. The plan has not been finalised yet but deliberations were held on the identity card,” Parida told PTI.

Parida, the BJD’s Odisha state secretary, further said making such a card is one of the demands of the community and it will help in their upliftment.

“India is the first country which has taken such a step to form a department and a council for the community. The government is taking the transgender community forward and trying its best to remove the social stigma associated with the community members,” Parida said.

The council was established in August by the Centre in exercise of the powers conferred by the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.

According to the Act, the functions of the council include advising the Centre on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons; monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons.

The other functions of the council are to review and coordinate the activities of all the departments of 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 such other functions as may be prescribed by the Centre.