Transgender communities across India demand withdrawal of Bill to redefine trans people

The Union government’s proposed legislation to withdraw transgender people’s right to “self-perceived gender identity” and redefine who a “transgender person” is, has led to student protests and public meetings within the transgender community across cities such as New Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata, calling for the government to withdraw the Bill and protect the right to self-perceived gender identity.

This has come even as spontaneously formed coalitions of civil society groups, lawyers, doctors, activists, and other professionals in cities such as Guwahati, Chennai, Varanasi, Bengaluru, and several others are planning campaigns to write to MPs, organising awareness and support group meetings, and strategising over how to register their opposition to the proposed legislation. A public petition has also been initiated online, calling for the withdrawal of the Bill, gathering over 13,000 signatures as on Monday evening. 

On Friday, Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar introduced the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, proposing widespread amendments to the law enacted in 2019.

At the Indian Women’s Press Corps in New Delhi, a similar coalition of people from the transgender community, lawyers, activists, and rights-based organisations came together for a press conference, calling the amendments “discriminatory and unjust”, arguing that the government was “snatching back” a right recognised in 2014, and that this is not “how a democracy functions”.

In the 2014 NALSA judgement, the Supreme Court had laid down the law that the right to self-identification of gender fell under the ambit of personal liberty, a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Devansh, a transman who was on the panel for the coalition, said, “After a long fight, in 2014, the government gave us recognition. With that recognition, we moved ahead with our lives, took very important decisions, such as starting the process of gender-affirming surgery, and getting transgender cards made. We came out to the world that we are transgender. After 12 years and all these important decisions, you stop recognising us. Where are we supposed to go now?”

Open letter to PM

In Karnataka, people from the transgender community came together under the banner of the Karnataka State Gender and Sexuality Minorities Coalition for a press conference in Bengaluru. This coalition also issued an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, saying, “Passing this amendment will put in jeopardy the rights of thousands and millions of persons who are currently recognised as transgender.” They added that instead of expanding the rights of trans people, the proposed legislation “contracts it”.

Grace Banu, a community leader based in Chennai, said a press conference was being held at the Chennai Press Club on Tuesday to register the community’s opposition to the proposed amendments, while community leaders in cities like Varanasi said similar strategies were being planned in their cities. Transgender activists in Guwahati also said they were currently holding discussions within the community on how to organise against this proposed legislation. Akkai Padmashali of the Karnataka coalition said, “We are also organising protests and public meetings in Bengaluru against these proposed amendments.”

On Saturday, the Mumbai Queer Pride issued a statement opposing the proposed amendments, calling the shift in the government’s approach a “regressive step that undermines established constitutional protections and reverses the progress made toward inclusive citizenship”. “Reject Trans Bill 2026”, another coalition of civil society, human rights activists, lawyers, and other professionals that came up during the weekend, put out a collective statement condemning the Bill as well.

Meanwhile, a Students’ Federation of India-led protest against the amendment Bill in New Delhi also submitted a memorandum to Mr. Virendra Kumar, seeking the Bill’s withdrawal.

At the Delhi presser, Krishanu, a transwoman and queer activist, spoke of the Section on offences against transgender people that criminalised “compelling” children to “outwardly present a transgender identity”. She explained that such words give the impression that a transgender adult or child is not exercising consent while expressing their gender. “This then criminalises anyone who is helping them transition, or with identification, or expression,” she said. She added that the amendment Bill “misconstrues the ideas of what transgender and intersex bodies look like, by conflating them into one.”

The panelists also spoke about how the amendments suggest they had to be part of gharanas and communities to be considered transgender, referring to the recognition of “socio-cultural identities as hijra, kinner, aravani, jogta, and eunuch” in the proposed definition. Ritu, a transwoman, said, “I don’t have to be part of a gharana or community to be trans. These structures were built because society had no other place for us.”

Elaborating on this, Raghavi, a transwoman and a lawyer, said, “Essentially, you are saying that trans persons stay within that fold, and do not go beyond.” The panelists argued that gharanas have their own challenges, and that these communities are usually associated with transwomen, further invisiblising transmen.

Fiza Sultana, a Muslim transwoman, who was among the audience, shared that a few transgender persons have started an organisation to address issues this amendment poses for Muslim and Dalit trans people. “A lot of the identities mentioned here are from Savarna Hindu cultures. Other socio-linguistic categories exist, too.”

Published – March 17, 2026 01:16 am IST