As per the Census 2011, 4,87,803 Persons have been classified as ‘others’ which includes Transgender Persons.
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment enacted “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019” for protection of rights of transgender people and their welfare, and provisions of the same came into force on 10th Jan, 2020. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020 were formulated and published in Gazette of India on 29 September, 2020.
Ministry has launched a scheme “SMILE – Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise” on 12.02.2022, which includes sub scheme – ‘Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons’. The focus of the sub-scheme is on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities and intervention, counseling, education, skill development, economic linkages to the transgender persons.
On 21st Aug, 2020, National Council for Transgender Persons was constituted to advise Government on policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons.
The Ministry has launched National Portal for Transgender Persons on 25th November, 2020. Any Transgender applicant can obtain Certificate of Identity and Identity Card without any physical interface with the office of issue. The person who has been issued a certificate of identity are entitled to change the first name in the birth certificate and all other official documents relating to the identity of such person.
Ministry has initiated 12 pilot shelter homes namely ‘Garima Greh’: Shelter Home for Transgender Persons. The main aim of these shelter homes is to provide safe and secure shelter to Transgender persons in need. These pilot shelter homes are in States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. Ministry has provided full financial assistance to community based organizations (CBOs) for setting up of these shelter homes which provide basic amenities like food, shelter, medical care, recreational facilities and also conduct capacity-building and skill development programmes for Transgender persons. No such information is available with the Ministry.
The Ministry has planned to impart skill development training to the Transgender beneficiaries of the SMILE Scheme through PM-DAKSH – a skill development scheme of the Ministry.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment, Shri A. Narayanaswamy in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
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MG/RNM