Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot inaugurated the ‘Garima Griha’, a national portal for transgender persons and a shelter home for transgender persons, on 25 November 2020.
The purpose of this National Portal is to encourage the people of the transgender community to come forward and acquire transgender certificates and identity cards according to their self-identity, which is an important provision under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
Transgender persons will be able to use this national portal to apply for online certificates and identity cards. All applicants will be able to get their ID-cards without any direct contact and without visiting any office.
A strict time frame has been set for issuing authorities to process such applications and issue certificates and identity cards without undue delay. Only after the issuance of these certificates and ID-cards, applicants can download them from the National Portal.
This national portal will offer an end-to-end online process. Members of the transgender community will be able to avail the services provided by this portal from anywhere in the country.
A shelter home for transgender persons – dignity home has also been inaugurated in Vadodara which will be run in collaboration with Lakshya Trust.
This shelter houses skill development opportunities and other facilities such as yoga, meditation, prayer, physical fitness, library, legal aid, technical advice for gender change and surgery and capacity building of trans-friendly organizations including employment and skill-building support. Will do.
It is a pilot project and after its success, other similar schemes will be operated in other parts of the country.
The Union Ministry of Social Justice has taken the first step to improve the conditions of transgender persons across the country by identifying 10 cities to establish 13 shelters.
The central ministry plans to provide transgender individuals with pilot facilities in partnership with 13 selected community-based organizations in the country. These 10 selected cities include New Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Chennai, Raipur, Kolkata, Vadodara, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Manipur.
