COVID-19, discrimination and housing will top the agenda for India’s new National Council for Transgender Persons. The new council will bring together senior government figures, state governments, transgender representatives from across India and experts.
India’s social justice minister will chair the council. And senior representatives from the country’s health, housing, employment, pensions, legal affairs and rural departments will also attend.
Around 2million trans people live in India. And while ‘hijra’ or ‘third sex’ people play an important role in weddings and other ceremonies, society still shuns them.
Many survive by begging or selling sex. Indian trans campaigner Laxmi Narayan Tripathi described the new council as ‘historic’.