Sakina Tashrifwala
Published on: September 3, 2022 at 21:32 IST
The Tamil Nadu State Government was ordered to notify the draft of Transgenders Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules within 12 weeks in an order passed by Justice Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court.
The judge stated, “…This Court is inclined to grant 12 weeks to enable the government to notify the rules after getting approval from all concerned.”
Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu Government on Friday briefed the court that the policy was at its final stage and would provide the best support for the transgender community.
Prior to the plea, which was moved by the lesbian couple seeking protection from their family, the court had ventured to get rid of the taint associated with this community and also help shield the well-being of this community.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) apprised the court that, a notification was issued to the effect that performing conversion therapy for the LGBTQIA+ community will constitute professional misconduct under the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette, and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, and the same has been intimated to the State medical councils.
As directed by the court the NMC submitted a communication to all the medical colleges/universities/institutions and education boards to implement the revised guidelines and modules for the PG Training Programme for MD in Psychiatry.
Thereafter, the court justified the need to familiarize the teachers so these children have opportunities to open themselves and not diverge into drug abuse and experience harsh mental stages of depression. The court impelled the respondents to submit a status report on this issue by the next hearing.
“These kids do not have anyone to talk to. But they might be going through a lot internally. Just to get out of this mental frame, these kids sometimes get addicted to drugs. People will not look into why they went that way. They’ll just tag them as drug addicts”, the Court orally remarked.
The court was further informed that earnest proceedings were being made to implement policies for the transgender community. The integration of a training module for Integrating Transgender Concerns in Schooling Process is being prepared and will be shared with the states and CBSE, KVS and NVS as soon as possible.
The court adjourned the matter to December 9, 2022 for the next hearing.