Agartala: The Tripura government has agreed to constitute a transgender welfare board under the supervision of the social welfare and social education department, LGBTQ activist and senior member of the NGO Swabhiman Sneha Gupta Roy told EastMojo.
“A 24-point charter of demands was placed in the meeting chaired by Social Welfare and Social Education Minister Tinku Roy. Secretaries of different departments, senior officials and representatives of the LGBTQ community exchanged their views on how to protect our rights. The social stigma must be addressed and that is only possible if all the stakeholders work in close coordination,” Roy added.
Roy said the meeting was convened by the minister to ascertain the ground realities and discuss the constitution of the proposed welfare board.
“The Minister and all the officials have listened to our problems. When we were allowed to speak, we spoke our hearts out. References of states where the LGBTQ community people are well accepted in society are placed before the officials through a detailed presentation. We have also tried to make them aware of the composition of such Boards as we see in other states. Normally, such Boards are headed by a transgender and policy implementation is carried out by transpersons. We are yet not aware of the government’s decision, but all of them seemed quite keen to resolve our problems by giving us a voice,” she added.
According to her, the state government might not approve all the recommendations or demands raised by the LGBTQ representatives, but even if some of the key demands are fulfilled, it would be a silver lining of hope for them.
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“The government may not approve all our demands at the first go. But, if the demands that are very crucial for providing social security and protection to the trans persons draw a positive nod from the state government it will be a big forward step. I hope the government will gradually agree to all our demands,” she pointed out.
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