New Women and Child Development Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam on Wednesday said that women’s safety and empowerment of transgender community will be the top priorities of the government.

“The transgender community has been neglected for very long. They are subjected to discrimination and exclusion by the society. We need to work towards the protection and empowerment of the this community. Transgender inclusion and equality is pivotal to us,” the Minister said.

On Wednesday, Mr. Gautam also met Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal to discuss the issue of women’s safety in Delhi. “The work done by the DCW is lauded all across the country. They have been successful in busting sex rackets and have rescued girls from human trafficking. In the upcoming years, we want women in the Capital to feel safer. Special focus should be on cases of domestic violence and to protect the victims,” the Minister said.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon, a biopharmaceutical enterprise, paid a visit to a mohalla clinic in Saket constituency of Delhi and termed it as a “step in the right direction” towards achieving the sustainable development goal of universal health coverage. She later met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his office in the Secretariat.