'Transgenders to be separate category in Census'

The Technical Advisory Committee constituted by Registrar General has recommended inclusion of transgender community in the census as a separate gender and not as males as is the present practice.

The Technical Advisory Committee constituted by Registrar General has recommended inclusion of transgender community in the census as a separate gender and not as males as is the present practice.

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In an RTI reply to Dr SE Huda of Bareilly based-NGO SSFA-ESFI, the Registrar General has said that the TAC has recommended a separate category for the transgender community of the country.

The recommendation of the TAC would now be placed before the government for consideration, it said.

In the current practice, the community is included in the Census as 'males'. The TAC proposal says that during census males will be give code one, for females code two and for transgendered it will be 'code three'.

The NGO had petitioned the Prime Minister's Office, President's Secretariat, Home Ministry and Registrar General's Office on inclusion of transgender in a different category.

It has also filed a petition before the Supreme Court.

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.