The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday, 26 October, cleared the State Policy for Transgenders, 2017, aimed at bringing the community into the mainstream of the society and providing its members with a secured life.
The policy had been drafted in compliance with a Supreme Court order, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister TB Jayachandra told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
They face insecurity, discrimination, insults, anxiety, suicidal tendencies. Therefore, this policy aims at bringing them into the mainstream of the society and provide them with a secured life.TB Jayachandra
The different categories of transgenders mentioned in the policy include “jogappa, jijra, female to male, male to female, inter-sex, kothis, jogtas, shivashakti and aravanis”.
The policy aims to create awareness about the transgender community in all the educational institutions of the state, reach out to the family members through anganwadi workers to sensitise them about trans-children, bring into place a monitoring committee or cell at the educational institutions to address the issues of discrimination, sexual abuse and violence against transgenders.
It also moots defining the indicators for a friendly policy, which goes beyond non-discrimination, and to include the transgender community in the ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, Right to Education and similar efforts to promote literacy.
Jayachandra, quoting from the document, said, “All levels of the formal education system should have reservations for transgender students.”
(The article has been edited for length)
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