Transgender Community To Have Separate Category In Prisoners Data

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) would now include 'transgender' as a separate category while classifying the prisoners according to their gender, for their annual publication of prison statistics.

The central government on Monday, December 9, told the Delhi High Court that all the states and union territories have been directed to include the data on transgender prisoners under a separate category from 2020 onwards.

A statement communicating the decision was made by the government, represented by the Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, before a Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan.

"NCRB intends to include transgender in the gender classification of prisoners from PSI-2020 onwards. Accordingly, gender classification of the prisoners will be classified as Male, Female and Transgender in the PSU proforma and Annexures," read the statement, reported The Indian Express.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by journalist Karan Tripathi seeking inclusion of separate data on transgender prisoners in NCRB reports.

"Till date, only two genders appear in the Prisons Statistics India report published by NCRB i.e. male and female, to the complete exclusion of the third gender," stated the plea. It pointed out that transgenders had, however, been recognized as the third gender in other publications like 'Crimes in India' and 'Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India' by NCRB.

"It is not uncommon to learn about incidents of atrocities in jails with transgenders, and without the transparency/recognition of transgenders in the Prison Statistics India, these atrocities are only likely to increase exponentially," it stated,

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