In a landmark decision, the Kerala government has on Monday has passed an order to include the transgender option in all application forms in all departments of the state government to reach out to the marginalised and socially neglected section of the society. Kerala Health and Social Justice Minister KK Shailaja said that the Kerala government will identify Transgender as an identity option in all application forms.
With this, all the government application forms currently in use will include woman/men/transgender/transwoman/transmen. "This will be another recognition for the progress of the transgender community. This will help in the upliftment of the transgender community," KK Shailaja said.
Kerala is the first state in the country that has included transgender policy after the Supreme Court passed a landmark judgement in 2014 which firmly established the right to equality and equal protection for transgender persons.
In Kerala, state government finances their gender reassignment surgery, hence, government applications options can be changed to woman/men/transgender/transwoman/transmen.
The decision was taken to further reach out to the marginalised section.
The decision was taken after understanding that the inclusion of this category in the application form would be beneficial to transgender individuals as their identities are clearly stated in the Transgender Personnel Protection of Rights Act, 2019, KK Shailaja said.
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Also, recently, Kerala State Women Development Corporation has decided to provide self-employment loans of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 15 lakh to the transgender persons and groups.
By the 2014 apex court judgment, the State policy grants a person to self-identify themselves as a Transgender. The policy also recommends the establishment of District-level Transgender Boards that can register and issue identification cards.