The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Centre for delay in giving reservation to transgenders.
Directing the government to grant reservation to transgenders, the apex court also clarified that lesbians, gays and bisexuals do not constitute to be a part of the third gender.
The question of reservation had come up in 2015 and Centre had sought clarification about who are covered under transgender.
Though well known LGBT activists have welcomed the Supreme Court order on giving reservation to transgender community, they feel that the apex court’s view is ambivalent.
Speaking to News18 after the landmark decision by the SC, India’s leading gay rights activist Ashok Row Kavi said the SC order should be clear. Kavi who is also the founder of Hamsafar said, “the SC has said that transgender community should get reservation. But, who decides who is a transgender? Currently anyone can claim that he or she is a transgender. There needs to be a statutory body like national Backward Class Commission and Scheduled Castes Commission to decide that. They should certify who is a transgender. The SC is not clear about it. That is our main concern."
He also said the transgender community known as 'hijras' have a lot of infighting and there are both – real and fake transgender people. He argued that such contentious issues should be addressed first.
Kavi added, "I would want very quickly an all India Transgender Commission. Like the one in Kerala. Both in Lok Sabha and in the SC, the arguments about LGBT community are not informed. The commission should take care of all such things."
CEO of Naz Foundation Anjali Gopalan also shared the view that there must be a government mechanism to decide who is a transgender and who is not to avoid any anomalies.
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