Transgender Bill encourages sexual assault of transgenders: DCW
The Delhi Commission For Women on Friday wrote a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment alleging that the Transgender Bill encourages sexual assault of transgenders.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, was introduced by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot last week and provides a mechanism for social, economic and educational empowerment of transgenders.
DCW Transgender Cell held series of consultations with transgenders and has given recommendations on "deficiencies" of the Bill to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Gehlot, the commission said.
The biggest flaw with the Bill is that in its present form, it encourages rape and sexual assault of transgender persons, it alleged.
"In the Bill, penal provision for sexual assault against a transgender person is imprisonment for a period of minimum six months to maximum two years only whereas, for others, sexual assault is punishable by imprisonment of not less than seven years and maximum of life imprisonment," the panel added.
The DCW said this should be urgently amended.
It said the bill should properly enlist the rights of transgender persons to marry, adopt and inherit property.
The panel suggested free sex reassignment surgeries, hormonal therapy, laser therapy or any other health treatment for transgenders in both public and private hospitals.
Setting up of National and State Transgender Commission on the lines of women commissions have also been suggested, the DCW said.
The women's panel recommended that the bill be referred to the Standing Committee for holding wider consultations.
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