Transgenders – a separate category in Census 2011

Till now,the transgender community is enumerated in the Census as males.

Transgenders have a reason to celebrate,as they will be included in the 2011 census in ‘Others’ category after recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) were accepted by the government.

Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) said in an RTI reply that as recommended by Technical Advisory Committee “transgenders would be given separate code i.e. ‘3’ in the names of others,the ‘1’ and ‘2’ being meant for male and female respectively during the ensuing Census 2011.”

“But it is to be reported only when the respondent wishes to return other than code-1 and code-2 and thus left at the choice of respondents to opt for code-3,” the RGI said in an reply to RTI application filed by Bareli-based activist S E Huda.

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In an earlier reply,the RGI had said that the TAC has recommended a separate category for the transgender community. The recommendation of the TAC would now be placed before the government for consideration,it had said.

In the current practice,the community is included in the Census as ‘males’. The TAC had proposed that during census,males will be given code one,females two and for transgendered it will be ‘code three’ which has been accepted by the Government.

An NGO led by Huda had petitioned the Prime Minister’s Office,President’s Secretariat,Home Ministry and Registrar General’s Office on inclusion of transgender as a different category.

It has also filed a petition before the Supreme Court.

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The Planning Commission,meanwhile,has also recommended separate category for the transgenders in the Unique Identification Authority of India Project,said a separate RTI reply from the Commission.

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