Transgender Rights In India & The World | Summachar

On 26th September, 2020, in the address made to the United Nations General Assembly, Indian PM Narendra Modi affirmed India’s comittment to Transgender rights.

He stated that “rights of Transgenders are also being secured through necessary Legal reforms” in India. In doing so, he became one of the few leaders to acknowledge Transgender rights on international forums.

According to the Human Rights Watch, transgender is the identity of people whose gender assigned at birth does not conform to their lived gender”

Even today transgenders face discrimination across the globe. For instance, US earlier allowed Transgender people in the Army before President Trump reversed the decision in 2017. He claimed that they add “tremendous medical costs and disruption”

Russia criminalized educating “minors” about Transgender in 2013, and banned Transgender people from driving in 2015.

As of 2019, 16 countries including Japan and Finland require sterilisation for transgender people before granting them official recognition

Even WHO categorized Transgender health issues under “mental and behavioural disorders” until 2019.

In the next part we will have a look at hoe transgender people have been embraced historically in India.