India court recognises transgenders as third gender in landmark ruling

NEW DELHI India’s top court on Tuesday issued a landmark verdict recognizing transgender rights as human rights, saying people can identify themselves as a third gender on official documents.

The Supreme Court directed the federal and state governments to include transgendered people in all welfare programs for the poor, including education, health care and jobs to help them overcome social and economic challenges. Previously, transgendered Indians could only identify themselves as male or female in all official documents

The judges asked the government to treat them in line with other minorities officially categorised as “socially and economically backward”, to enable them to get quotas in jobs and education.

“We are quite thrilled by the judgement,” Anita Shenoy, lawyer for the petitioner National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa), told the BBC. “The court order gives legal sanctity to the third gender. The judges said the government must make sure that they have access to medical care and other facilities like separate wards in hospitals and separate toilets,” she said.

Approximately two million people are said to be transgender, or hijira, in India.

Homosexuality is still criminalized in India after a stunning Supreme Court ruling last year. The court earlier this month offered hope that it would reconsider that ruling after a campaign by activists.

Agencies/Canadajournal