The Uttar Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is all set to establish a transgender welfare board under the social welfare department of the state.
‘The Board would work for the welfare and uplift of the transgender community. Along with the state government officers, the board would also include transgender representatives and the members of the social organizations working for the welfare of the transgenders,’ a state government official was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
The official stated that the newly established transgender welfare board will be focusing on the well-being and security of the transgenders by identifying them across UP, enlisting them, distributing identity cards, getting them admitted in schools and colleges, providing them accommodation in various hostel and housing programmes of the state government and launch various welfare schemes for the transgender community.
After the Supreme Court recognised the transgender community as a third gender in 2014 in its order, the Uttar Pradesh Kinnar Akhada Parishad had urged the state government to constitute the transgender welfare board.
‘The Central government’s expert committee had directed the UP government to constitute a welfare board for transgenders,’ the government official added.
However, the development has been announced weeks after the UP government had granted rights to the transgender community where they were able to inherit their ancestral agricultural land and property.
The State Law Commission had submitted a proposal in March 2019 to the government where it demanded a law to recognize and acknowledge the inheritance rights of the ‘third gender’.
Justice AN Mittal, the commission’s chairman, had drawn the government’s attention towards the inheritance laws that missed the transgender community.
The UP Revenue Code Bill, 2020 was finally passed by the legislative assembly during the monsoon session, allowing the transgender community to inherit their ancestral agriculture land.
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