Delhi: Panel suggests health cover for third gender

NEW DELHI: A committee formed to conduct a comprehensive study on the conditions of transgender people in the national capital has suggested that the government should provide health insurance to the third gender that also covers gender confirmation surgery.

In the report submitted to social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam last week, the committee has also proposed that people belonging to the third gender are issued ‘transgender certificates’ instead of identity cards to help them avail social security benefits.

The other suggestions include setting up government-sponsored gender-neutral hostels and transit homes for transgender people forced to move out of abusive homes, omission of gender column from all education forms and certificates and implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2014 NALSA judgment in totality, which declared transgender people to be a ‘third gender’ and gave them the right to self-identification of their gender as male, female or third gender.

To create awareness and include them in the mainstream, the Delhi government also partnered with the Quart project and organised a queer art festival in Dwarka on Sunday. The festival provided a mass platform to showcase the talents of the trans-community whose voices otherwise remain unheard to the mainstream society. The committee has also suggested that the government should focus on healthcare facilities, empowerment, education and employment of the third gender. It has also recommended that the Medical Council of India starts a specialised post-graduate degree programme in ‘transgender healthcare’.

The committee was formed by the Aam Aadmi Party government in May this year and included two representatives of the third gender apart from officials from social welfare department and representatives from organisations working at different levels for the welfare of the transgender. The recommendations of the committee will go to Transgender Welfare Board, which is likely to be set up soon. The government will then initiate schemes for their development.