Diversity & Inclusion: The National Portal for Transgender Persons has issued only 277 certificates of identity, and identity cards, to transgender people since its launch in November 2020.
The portal is functional in all districts of the country, and transgender people can apply for identification certificates issued by district magistrates. However, despite this wide reach, only 16 percent of the applications had been processed and identity cards issued.
In data released by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 1,915 transgender people had applied for certificates and ID cards, of which 1,695 were found to be valid applications. Till date, 277 certificates and cards have been issued, 1,418 applications are pending, and 220 have been rejected following submission of invalid or insufficient documents or them being duplicate applications.
“As per Census 2011, there are 4,87,803 persons under the ‘Others’ category (which includes transgender people),” according to the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Rattan Lal Kataria.
Read this article in which a trans rights activists narrates her story of fighting prejudice against the trans, hijra, and intersex communities.