Transgender persons in this country have always been treated as virtual non-persons when it came to rights as equal citizens of the state. Happily for the last few years, however, slowly but surely things have been getting better. Back in 2009, the Supreme Court took the first all-important step towards guaranteeing the transgender community's basic rights, ruling that they be issued national identity cards and passports as the "third sex", thus giving them access to some essential facilities and, of course, a true sense of identity. The court later also ruled that they be granted the right to inherit property, own assets, cast votes, and registered in a separate category in the national census. They have since been issued ID cards and passports, and counted as the third gender in the census report.
But the right of inheriting property has remained elusive due to lack of a legal cover. That proved to be a rather daunting task for the lawmakers as it involved interpreting a complex issue in the light of religious insights. The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights has been deliberating on 'The Transgender Persons' (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2017 since last December. It has now been approved in a much-desired form. Notably, the legislators had sought recommendations from the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) on the tricky subject of determining the sex of transgender persons in general and the issue of inheritance in particular. In an enlightened response, the CII Chairman told the committee on Friday his colleagues had reached consensus on three points. First, he said, the prime responsibility for determining the sex of a transgender person lies with the parents. Second, if the parents are not known or have disowned the person then the gender should be based on their self-presumed identity. Third, in cases where inheritance issues emerge and clear evidence of gender is required, then a court may prescribe a medical board to determine the sex category of the individual concerned, otherwise such a check-up won't be necessary.
These recommendations have been incorporated in the draft bill. That should help the proposed legislation to have an easy sailing through full house where it is to come up for discussion and debate next month, and also ensure it remains free of any controversy. The recognition that gender identity is a matter of an individual's perception of self, should stop such tragic incidents as the one that happened in a Peshawar hospital where a transgender person died unattended because the staff could not decide whether to take 'her' to a male or a female ward. And in cases of property inheritance, identity issue would not deprive anyone of their due right. The bill when it is passed will be great move towards ending discrimination against the third sex.