The Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, A. Narayanaswamy of the BJP party, was recently asked by Member of Parliament Vandana Chavan of the NCP in detail about whether the government plans to introduce horizontal reservations for transgender people. Her question was in three parts, the first concentrating on whether there were such plans, the second on whether trans organisations and representatives would be consulted if the answer to the first part was in the affirmative, and the third asking for an explanation if the answer to it was in the negative.
Ms. Chavan has received only a one line response in answer to this detailed enquiry, in which the minister has clearly stated that there is no such proposal under consideration for reservations for transgender persons in his department.
Read more: Why are folx demanding horizontal reservation?
This comes despite multiple activists continuously working towards the goal of affirmative action and horizontal reservation for trans people, and the NALSA judgement of the Supreme Court clearly calling for the extension of all kinds of reservations to the transgender community. To only make trans people eligible for affirmative action on the basis of economic capacity and/or other criteria is to invisibilize the very real institutional and social transphobia that they face every single day. It also refused to acknowledge the double burden that comes at the intersection of multiple identities, such as being transgender as well as having a Bahujan caste identity or having disabilities.
