Transgender Welfare Board in Uttarakhand

• 16 Dec 2024

Why in News? 

Recently, the Uttarakhand Cabinet cleared a proposal for the formation of the State Transgender Persons Welfare Board. 

• The State will bring a policy to provide equal opportunity in employment to transgender persons. 

 Key Points 

• Survey and Issuance of Identity Cards: 
  • A survey will be conducted across Uttarakhand to identify and ascertain the number of transgender persons in the State. 
  • Following the survey, transgender individuals will be issued identity cards to formalize their recognition. 
• Facilitating Welfare Access:  
  • The welfare board will ensure the transgender community’s access to existing social, educational, and health schemes. 
  • It will also develop new schemes that are sensitive and non-discriminatory towards the community. 
  • An effective monitoring system will be established to address grievances, with a fixed time limit for complaint resolution. 
• Formation of Uttarakhand Transgender Persons Welfare Board: 
  • The Social Welfare Department will serve as the administrative department, with the Chief Minister as the head for the Transgender Persons Welfare Board. 
  • Members will include Secretaries of Departments such as Social Welfare, Home, Finance, Personnel, Urban Development, and Panchayati Raj, along with: 
    • Five experts from the transgender community. 
    • A representative from Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) working for transgender rights. 
    • National Context and Legal Mandate. 
• 18^th State to Establish Welfare Board: 
  • Uttarakhand will become the 18th State/Union Territory to establish a welfare board for transgender persons under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, and Rules, 2020. 
    • Other states with Transgender Welfare Boards are Rajasthan, Mizoram, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Maharashtra, Kerala, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman & Nicobar. 

 Transgender

• According to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 transgender means a person whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at birth. 
• It includes trans-person with intersex variations, gender-queer and people having such socio-cultural identities as kinnar, hijra, aaravani and jogta. 
• India’s 2011 Census was the first census in its history to incorporate the number of ‘trans’ population of the country. The report estimated that 4.8 million Indians identified as transgender.