Saturday, August 30, 2014

Maharashtra State Cabinet approved the formation of Transgender Welfare Board

Maharashtra State Cabinet on 28 August 2014 approved the formation of Transgender Welfare Board. After Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra became the second state to announce the formation of the board.
Other Decisions taken at the state cabinet meeting:
• Inclusion of ten sub-castes in the Lingayat community in the OBC category
• Recommended the Centre to grant minority status to Lingayat community
• Transgender Welfare Board  to undertake programmes for the survey of the transgender population and also take up employment and welfare schemes for the community
• Hike in pension of freedom fighters by 2000 rupees and the amount will be deposited in their bank accounts in the beginning of Financial Year
• Re-survey of land records to done through satellite in Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur and Raigad districts

Background
Maharashtra was the first state to carry out complete study on the transgender community and announce welfare schemes recommended by Supreme Court. The Supreme Court on 15 April 2014 recognised transgender as the third gender. It gave out 26 recommendations for the welfare of transgender. 

Some significant recommendations were:
• An umbrella scheme that covers whole transgender community 
• A National Policy on Transgenders
• State-level authority should certify a person as transgender, and change of gender should be recorded on the birth certificate of a person after the age of 18
• Rape and trauma centres should be set up for transgender people 
• a section added to the Indian Penal Code to deal with cases of sexual assault on them and records of crimes against them
• Workplace sexual harassment policies should be made transgender-inclusive.
An inter-ministerial committee was set up to ensure preparation of well-organized action plans.

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