Indian Railways to let go old nomenclature; Modification in gender section for transgender community.

Giving the credits where is due to the transgender community of India, the Indian Railway Board has asked all their zonal railway offices to give transgender the option to identify themselves as the third gender on train tickets.

The reservation forms, which currently have the ‘Transgender (Male/Female)’ option, will be modified to have just the ‘T’ option.

In their letter to zonal officers dated 17th October, the Railway Board said that they could consider this modification to “capture the gender of transgender as ‘T’ instead of ‘T(M/F)’ as advised earlier” till the parliamentary standing committee reviewed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016.

In 2014, the Supreme Court announced transgender as the third gender in India and is currently reviewing The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights), Bill.

The Bill is meant to empower the transgender community, which has been ostracised and discriminated against for ages. It will provide inclusivity to the community and help them empower socially and economically and also provide educational opportunities to them.