Centre Forms National Council For Transgender Persons

In a big relief to the transgender population of India, the Centre on Saturday formed the National Council for Transgender Persons. It will be headed by the Union social justice minister and representatives from 10 central departments, five states and members of the community.

The council is formed under Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, a first in India. It was announced first in a news notification late Friday.

According to the legislation, the council will have five main functions that include advising the central government on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons; monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons; reviewing and coordinating the activities of all the departments; redressing grievances of transgender persons; and performing such other functions as prescribed by the Centre.

The council will comprise of joint secretary-level members from the ministries of health, home, minority affairs, education, rural development and labor and law.

One member each from the department of pensions, Niti Aayog, National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women will also be part of the council.

Representatives from five states or Union Territories comprising of Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura and Gujarat will be members of the council initially on a rotational basis.

Additionally, five members of the transgender community and five experts from NGOs have also been named to the council.