Chandigarh: Legal clinic started for transgenders
The legal clinic for transgenders has been started at Chandigarh’s New Indira Colony in Manimajra and will be open on Wednesday and Saturday; paralegal volunteers to be deputed from the transgender community
The District Legal Services Authority, Chandigarh, in association with Chandigarh State Aids Control Society and its partner NGO, Association of Professional Social Workers and Development Practitioners (APSWDP), has started a legal aid clinic for transgenders, “Samta Nyay Kendra”, at New Indira Colony in Manimajra.
The clinic will be functional on Wednesday and Saturday and panel lawyers and paralegal volunteers will be deputed on need-based assignments. Also, paralegal volunteers will be deputed from within members of the transgender community.
The clinic was inaugurated on Sunday by Justice Jaswant Singh, judge, Punjab and Haryana high court-cum- executive chairman, State Legal Services Authority, Chandigarh. He said that in a case, the apex court declared transgender people as the “third gender”. Hence, it becomes imperative that all efforts be made to ensure that people from the transgender community have access to multidimensional services and feel included as part of mainstream society.
He added that there is a need to sensitise all stakeholders including the judiciary about specific needs of the community. Through the clinic, people from the transgender community will be provided legal aid services, legal awareness training, linkages and capacity building services, he added.
Gurbir Singh, district and sessions judge-cum-chairman, DLSA, said this clinic is a step towards ensuring that the fundamental rights granted under the Constitution of India are equally applicable and accessible to members of the transgender community.
