Indian Paramilitary To Induct Transgender Officers

New Delhi : The Indian government has decided to induct members of the transgender community in the country’s elite paramilitary forces ending discrimination against the marginalised section.

Working upon the modalities in that direction, the Ministry of Home Affairs has sought suggestions and comments from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) on the matter. The ministry is working on the proposal to commission the “third gender” as officers in the paramilitary forces.

It has sought the opinion of all CAPFs on the modalities on implementation of commissioning third gender officers as Assistant Commandants.

Recently, the Indian government has taken several steps for upliftment of the transgender community. On March 17, the Minister of State for Social justice and Empowerment Rattan Lal Kataria in Lok Sabha stated that in order to provide for the protection of rights of transgender persons and their welfare, recently, The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, has been enacted with the effect from January 10, 2020.

The lawmaker also stated that during 2019-20, an amount of Rs 5 crore has been allocated for the welfare of transgender persons.

The minister has also stated that the transgender persons are entitled to all kinds of reservations such as Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in cases of admission in educational institutions and for government jobs in their respective category.