The government is set to launch a simplified certification process to provide identity cards and special homes to transgenders
Bengaluru: Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act was passed by the Parliament last year.
Now, as reported by Economic Times, the government is set to launch a simplified certification process to provide identity cards and special homes to transgenders in every state of the nation.
In this regard, the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment is set to launch a dedicated national portal.
This will help transgenders to apply for an identity card to the district magistrate, implementing the essence of the right to self-perceived identity as granted in the Act.
The website further notes that the portal will mark the initiation of a nationwide exercise to identify all the transgenders, enumerate them, provide them with identity cards, and thereafter roll-out targeted social welfare programmes.
The website quoted secretary (social justice and empowerment) R Subrahmanyam as saying: “We are initially planning to open one home in every state. State governments would be actively involved in the projects.”
Apart from it, the ministry is also looking at the prospect of opening homes for transgender people. As noted, the first such home will be opened in Gujarat’s Vadodara.
These homes will provide lodging and boarding services, as also vocational training.
The ministry is also looking at private sector participation in stigma erasure and giving transgender people more opportunities.
It is important to note that the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to set up a transgender welfare board under the state’s social welfare department.
The welfare board will identify transgenders across UP, enlist them, issue identity cards, get them enrolled in educational institutions, provide them accommodation under various hostel and housing schemes of the state government and launch welfare schemes for the community.
The state government had granted the transgender people the right to inherit ancestral agricultural land.
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