NEW DELHI: The newly- reconstituted National Council for Transgender Persons in its first meeting on Monday brought focus on the need to create stigma-free health care including psycho-social support and mental wellbeing for the community.
The council also dwelled on the need to reach out to more people to apply for TG identity certification and sensitise states to facilitate and speed-up approvals in keeping with the timelines set out under the law by the district authorities. So far certificates and IDs have been issued to a little over 17,800 transgender persons.
On the National Portal for Transender Persons launched in 2020, as per the latest data available, 22,078 applications have been received. Of this total, 17,829 persons have been issued TG certificates with 17,808 also being issued IDs. As many as 2,992 applications have been found to be ineligible and 4,285 applications are pending approval. As per Census 2011, 4.8 million Indians identified as transgender.
As ministries and state representatives shared the progress so far, the council at its meeting chaired by secretary ministry of social justice and empowerment (MoSJE) Saurabh Garg decided to focus on stepping up awareness building within the community to get more people to register for the TG card. The ministry will also compile the best practices adopted by states on reservation, pension and welfare for TG persons to enables other states to adopt them.
The govt also plans to take-up the issue of setting up transgender welfare boards and TG cells with states. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 mandates setting up boards and TG cells to protect the rights of TG persons. As of now the welfare boards have been set-up in 17 states – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura and UTs of Chandigarh and Puducherry. So far only 5 states – Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim have set-up TG cells.
As part of the outreach on health, the ministry of social justice and empowerment (MoSJE) in collaboration with National Health Authority are finally ready to roll out next month the much awaited dedicated composite health package under the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY to all transgender community members. They will also be provided a ‘Ayushman Bharat TG Plus card.’
The plan to implement this scheme as a collaborative programme of MoSJE and NHA was first announced for an early roll-out in August 2022 but could not be implemented then due to certain inter-ministerial modalities over procedures and expenditure. It is learnt that the modalities have been reworked and an MoU has been signed between NHA and the MoSJE to extend the benefits of AB-PMJAY to all transgender community members.
This health package will be available to only those persons who have a TG certificate issued through the national portal. Besides other health needs, the health package will also cover the cost of gender re-assignment surgery and certain components of the hormone therapy under the cashless facility of upto Rs 5 lakh annually that will be funded by the social justice ministry.
The Council meeting also discussed ways to confront the challenges faced by transgender individuals on matters related to education, life with dignity, opportunities for livelihood and skill enhancement. “Specific concerns raised included the necessity for unisex toilets, establishment of shelter homes, distribution of Ayushman Cards, and provision of GarimaGreh,” MoSJE highlighted in a statement.
