Amidst an Opposition-led walkout, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (March 24, 2026) passed by voice vote the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, which proposes to take away transgender folks’s proper to self-determination of gender, and introduces a clause for examination by a medical board to find out their gender.
The MPs who walked out of the House have been from events such because the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK, Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party, and the CPI(M). Congress whip Manickam Tagore stated they walked out as they have been “not satisfied with the reply” of the Minister on the Bill.
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Transgender rights teams, civil society leaders, and a number of other distinguished members of the group condemned the passing of the Bill as an “injustice”.
Union Minister for Social Justice Virendra Kumar stated the Bill seeks to cease adults and kids from being “forced or compelled” to grow to be or current as transgenders by means of hormone remedy or different interventions, and additional strengthens punishments for crimes in opposition to transgender folks. He referred to as the proposed amendments a step additional in the Modi-led authorities’s efforts to empower the transgender group.
The MPs from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) insisted that the Bill was for the “betterment” of the group. They claimed that retaining the precept of self-determination of gender would result in folks “falsely” claiming reservation and different such advantages, wherever and if they’re launched. “We want transgender people to live with equality; they should also get the same rights which the rest of the people get. I want to assure the House that transgenders will continue to get legal recognition. And their rights will be fully protected. This Act is an expression of our collective conscience,” the Minister stated.
Apart from the Union Minister, 15 MPs from throughout political events participated in the dialogue, out of which 11 MPs (all from Opposition events) objected to the Bill provisions. Stating that the suitable to self-determination of gender was recognised by the Supreme Court in its 2014 NALSA judgment, they referred to as the Bill an “attack on Constitutional morality” and the “dignity” of transgender folks throughout the nation.
MPs similar to Supriya Sule of the NCP requested why the federal government was bringing the Bill with such urgency and with out session, “when Rome is burning, the world is at war, and concerns such as India’s energy security should be given time for discussion in the House”. Opposition MPs stated the Bill needs to be withdrawn or no less than despatched to a parliamentary panel for examination.
The NDA MPs additionally praised provisions criminalising the “compelling” of youngsters or adults to current as transgender, as a selected safety for the group, at the same time as Opposition MPs voiced considerations that this will criminalise folks and organisations working to guard transgender individuals who may be dealing with violence or discrimination from their households and inside their societies.
The Bill was launched by the Minister in the Lok Sabha on March 13, virtually instantly inviting objections from throughout transgender communities all around the nation. They who’ve been protesting, holding public conferences, and writing letters to public representatives calling for its rejection
Regressive, says Rahul
On Tuesday morning, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, additionally posted an announcement opposing the Bill after assembly a delegation of activists and civil society leaders, calling it a “regressive Bill” that “attacks the Constitutional rights and identity of transgender people”. The delegation additionally met with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and different Congress leaders, who supported their calls for for withdrawing the Bill.
On Tuesday night, supporting the Bill, BJP MP from Balasore, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, posited that the precept of self-determination of gender may grow to be problematic as a result of if the federal government have been to determine to carry reservation for the transgender group, then “anyone could snatch away rights with the help of self-identification”, including that this Bill “protects transgender people from infiltrators”.
He additional claimed in his handle that the Bill represented India’s adoption of a “scientific approach” to find out if an individual was transgender primarily based on the advice of a medical board, additional arguing that it’s meant to “give prestige” to the group and to “stop all kinds of cheating”. This got here at the same time as Telugu Desam Party MP Byreddy Shabari spoke about purported complaints that individuals have been falsely adopting a “transgender identity” for begging at site visitors lights. MPs from Janata Dal United and the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) additionally spoke in help of the Bill.
In reply to the dialogue on the Bill, the Social Justice Minister reiterated that the legislation to guard the rights of transgender individuals was “always meant to protect only those suffering from extreme exclusion and discrimination due to biological reasons that exist not because of their fault or their wishes”. Mr. Kumar hailed the Union authorities led by PM Narendra Modi for “tirelessly” working in direction of “progressive” insurance policies for the mainstreaming of transgender folks, taking “Bharat ahead of some Western nations as well”.
The Social Justice Minister hailed the Modi-led authorities’s efforts to work for the empowerment of transgender folks. He particularly spoke on how the federal government had ensured that the canteen on the National Institute of Social Defence in Dwarka was run by transgender folks.
Published – March 24, 2026 07:13 pm IST
