Himani Bahuguna

Chandigarh:  Chandigarh, City beautiful, which last year remained in news after the magnificent heritage of Le Corbusier, got inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, this year the city has added another feather to its hat after it became the first UT to get Transgender Welfare Board.

The Chandigarh administration’s   newly 14 member’s welfare board will be holding its first meeting on Thursday at the DC office Chandigarh. The board is chaired by the additional deputy commissioner.

Excited about the meeting, Dhananjay Chauhan, Punjab University’s first transgender student, who also played an important role in getting the welfare board, says, “I am happy that the meeting will be held with the board members. I have prepared a special note of our issues which we initially to be addressed.”

Dhananjay also said that now after Chandigarh she would ensure that similar boards can b set up in  Punjab and Haryana too so that the LGBT community living in these two states can also get their due benefits. She also holds and non-official member post on the board.

 The members of the board include police department; social welfare department; law department; GMCH-32; health services; state liaison officer (education department); Registrar, Panjab University; Registrar, Birth and Death Department; SCBC Corporation, program manager, The Union Territory Child Protection Society (UTCPS) officials.

The board also includes, two non-official members, will ensure no public harassment along with providing a safe environment for the LGBT people.

Meanwhile, in 2015, Dhananjay Chauhan, who is also the Director of a city-based NGO Saksham, which works for the rights of the LGBT community had approached then Adviser to Administrator Chandigarh, Vijay Kumar Dev, explaining him the need of setting up of Transgender Welfare Board in Chandigarh. Presently, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal , Kerala and Andhra Pardesh have also set up a Transgender Welfare Board.

 “ I am so happy that now we have our own welfare board, that will not only ensure the safety and providing equal rights to LGBT community but will also provide special identity cards to the differentiating us,” says, Dhananjay Chauhan.

Granting legal recognition of the gender equality to the third gender (Hijras, Eunuchs, apart from Oman; gender) and safeguarding their rights is the same objective of the board. The board will also ensure that appropriate steps should be taken to treat them socially and educationally backward classes of citizens and extend all kinds of reservation in cares of admission in educational institutions and for public appointments.