The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday has asked the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) for their views to induct the 'third gender' in the paramilitary forces. MHA through a letter has sought suggestions and comments from the concerned authorities for commissioning members of the transgender community as officers in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

 

In a letter to the concerned authority, MHA on Wednesday asked the forces to share their opinions on commissioning transgenders on the rank of assistant commandants in the paramilitary forces. The ministry through the letter to CAPF on July 1, under the subject "Central Armed Police Forces (Assistant Commandants) Examination 2020 -Comments on draft rules regarding" has sought suggestions from the forces over the issue.

 

 

 

The ministry stated in the letter that the forces are once again requested to examine the issue and furnish comments on July 2, 2020, positively for taking a final view on the matter.

 

As the Ministry is working on the proposal to end discrimination against the ‘third gender’ of the society, officials familiar with the development said the government first wants to start with the officers’ rank through the Staff Service Commission (SSC).

 

With things in order, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has broken the glass ceiling in the 10-lakh-strong central paramilitary forces and asked the authorities concerned to send their comments for incorporating the issues on transgender as ‘third gender’ along with male/female in the rules of CAPFs (AC) Examination, 2020.

 

This year, the annual examination for recruiting ACs, who are Grade A officers is going to be held in December and if the MHA gets positive feedback from the paramilitary forces, their comments will be shared with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which will then incorporate transgender people as the third gender in the application forms.

 

Currently, there is no provision of hiring members of the transgender community in the central paramilitary forces or even in the Indian Army.

 

The CRPF has maximum ACs in its ranks at 3,054, followed by BSF (1,888), ITBP (716) ITBP, CISF (725), and SSB (542). As per MHA data, 7,859 ACs are currently employed with all the paramilitary forces.

 

 

As per clause 9 of the Act, no establishment shall discriminate against transgender persons in matters relating to employment, recruitment, promotion, and other related issues. It also provides for grievance redressal mechanism in each establishment and the establishment of a National Council for Transgender Persons. During 2019-20, an amount of Rs 5 crore has reportedly been allocated for the welfare of transgender persons.

 

The Civil services examination rules, 2020, have already been notified on February 5, providing for inclusion of ‘Transgender’ as a separate category of gender for the said examination.

 

Based on the new Act, on April 20, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had asked all central government departments to include “transgender” as a separate category of gender for recruitment in civil services and other posts. The DoPT order said that the matter regarding the inclusion of “Third Gender/any Other Category” in the application forms in recruitment to various posts under the central government was under consideration of the government for quite some time.