modern day

The National Legal Services Authority of India brought a historic case against the Union of India, which eventually would become a massive landmark judgement that legally declared and acknowledged the existence of trans people in India. The ruling legally recognized the existence of people who identified as non-binary, were transitioning from male to female or vice versa, assigned educational reservations and socio-economic reforms to legitimize their existence. The ruling declared that a person’s gender is identified by their gender identity alone, and not by their physical or biological sex. Hospitals were instructed to provide adequate medical attention to all trans people, provide separate care for those affected by HIV and gender reassignment surgery was made a state sponsored amenity. State level governments were instructed to take steps to mitigate the discrimination against trans people.

Early political activists in independent India like Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi advocated against Section 377 of the IPC. This advocation turned into a concrete petition that challenged S377 in 1994, however, the Supreme Court dismissed it immediately under the pretense of “preserving the social and moral values of India,” ironically the same reason the British government had used when enacting the oppressive act. Two more attempts by the Naz foundation were shut down in 2001 and 2009. Finally, in 2018 the Supreme Court overruled Section 377 of the IPC on the basis that it violated the fundamental rights enshrined within the constitution of India.

This bill is an extremely important step in the path towards the liberation of the trans community in Indian from the oppression and discrimination they have been living under for years and years. It clearly provides a legal definition for a trans person, outlaws discrimination based on gender identity, provides them with the right to reside in any state of India, ensures that trans people cannot be discriminated against by businesses or corporate entities, provides concrete academic and educational reservations, provides state-sponsored healthcare for reassignment surgery and for those afflicted with HIV and AIDS. It created the Certificate for Identity For a Transgender Person that acts as a legal form of identification, that can be used to access the state-sponsored healthcare. It created welfare measures for impoverished trans people and created the National Council for Transgender persons.

The Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise initiative of the Social Justice Ministry of the Indian government seeks to create safe spaces and empower marginalized transpeople by promoting their inclusion and justice. It aims to introduce further welfare benefits, scholarship opportunities, provide people with a subsidy, temporary housing, and further state-sponsored healthcare of higher quality.