The Union Government has included welfare of transgender persons in charter of work to be handled by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, following demands from civil society and transgenders to check incidents of social harassment and crime against them.
Besides, the Social Justice Ministry is finalising a Bill for formulation and implementation of a comprehensive national policy for ensuring overall development of the transgender persons.
President Pranab Mukherjee has approved changes in Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, which describe the functioning of Central Government departments, in this regard.
The amended rules were notified recently by the Cabinet Secretariat.
There are about 4.88 lakh transgenders in India, as per 2011 census, officials said.
“Transgender should be declared as the third gender, and a transgender person should have the option to identify as ‘man’, ‘woman’ or ‘transgender’ as well as have the right to choose any of the options independent of surgery/hormones. “Only the nomenclature ‘transgender’ should be used and nomenclatures like ‘other’ or ‘others’ should not be used,” as per the draft 'The Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2015'.