Govt sets-up 'National council for transgender Persons'

NEW DELHI: In a step towards implementing the law that came into effect in January for securing the rights of transgender persons, the government has notified the National Council for Transgender Persons. To be chaired by the union social justice minister, the Council includes representatives from various ministries, commissions, experts and nominated members from the community.
Meanwhile, the final draft rules to implement the law were published in the gazette for a month on July 13 for feedback. The ministry is yet to notify the rules.
However, a gazette notification was issued on August 21 stating that National Council is being set-up in keeping with the provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. The National Council has the mandate to advise the central government on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons. It will redress the grievances of transgender persons and monitor and evaluate the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons.
This Council will also review and coordinate the activities of all the departments of the government and non-governmental organisations which are dealing with matters relating to transgender persons.
A member of the National Council, other than ex officio member, will hold office for a term of three years from the date of nomination.
The ex-officio members will include union social justice secretary and representatives not below the rank of a joint secretary from the ministries of health and family welfare, home affairs, housing and urban affairs, minority affairs, human resources development, rural development, labour and employment, department of legal affairs and department of pensions and pensioners welfare and Niti Aayog.
The Council will also include representatives from the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women.
The nominated members include representatives from the state governments and union territories by rotation. The present Council will have representatives from Jammu & Kashmir (North), Andhra Pradesh (South), Odisha (East), Gujarat (West) and Tripura (North-East).
The Council also includes five representatives of transgender community, one each from the north, south, east, west and north-East regions. They include Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Gopi Shankar Madurai, Meera Parida, Zainab Javid Patel and Kak Chingtabam Shyamcand Sharma.
Five experts, to represent non-governmental organisations or associations, working for the welfare of transgender persons have also been included. They include Aryan Pasha, Vihaan Peethambar, Reshma Prasad and Patel Chandubhai Ganeshdas.