What was considered to be a historic act in the country’s history is now being amended to erase any minor gains or goodwill that was generated. On Monday, the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights held a meeting where the body discussed the different proposed amendments relating to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018. Once again, it appears that persistent pushback from the conservative segments of society has forced the hands of lawmakers to push for these amendments.
The committee was apprised about the common position taken by the movers of all six bills that Islamic law categorically provides that gender cannot be derived from internal feeling or internal sense of being, but instead may solely be derived from physical appearance, genital attributes, and congenital ambiguities. As a result, the committee unanimously decided to replace the word “Transgender” in the 2018 Act with “Khunsa (Intersex)”. This is another case of pandering to the religious circles who have very little understanding of the bill, and how it sought to provide some protection to an extremely marginalised and abused community.
