India’s transgender community on Tuesday said that a proposed law aimed at protecting their rights could leave the marginalized population more vulnerable to abuse and urged lawmakers to review the bill.
The “transgender persons bill” was on Monday passed by India’s lower house of parliament — where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holds a majority — and is expected to be tabled in the upper house before its winter session ends on Jan. 8.
Critics have said the bill has many problems, including denying the right of people to self-identify their gender.
Instead it proposes that a “screening committee” of experts issue identity certificates to individuals, which advocates have said could leave transgender people vulnerable to abuse.
The bill “reinforces and deepens the apartheid that exists in this country against trans persons,” said Anindya Hajra, a transgender woman and advocate at Pratyay Gender Trust.
“The bill is violative, it is not protection. We reject the bill in its present form,” she said.
India has about 2 million transgender people, according to the 2011 census.
Although the Indian Supreme Court in 2014 ruled that transgender people have equal rights under the law, they are often shunned and many survive through begging or sex work.
Meera Sanghamitra, a transgender woman and advocate, said the bill would make life more difficult for the community, especially by refusing the right to self-determine one’s own gender.
“What is between my two legs does not determine my gender. My gender is my experience, my gender is my identity, my gender is my decision and my exclusive decision — and this is not being recognized by this country’s parliament,” she said.
However, that is not the only problem, advocates said.
Under the new legislation, anyone who “compels or entices a transgender person” to beg could face jail time of up to two years — a clause that campaigners have said could be misused to imprison transgender people.
A prison term of six months to two years would be handed down for sex crimes against transgender people — a much lighter punishment than those for similar offenses against women, which can be up to life.
Shashi Tharoor, a lower house lawmaker from the main opposition Congress party who has raised several concerns over the bill, called it “regressive and fraught with flaws.”
His proposed amendments were on Monday “shouted down” by members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, he said.
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