logo
Queer activists call for policy changes to ensure equal rights of LGBTQ persons

Queer activists call for policy changes to ensure equal rights of LGBTQ persons

India Today18-07-2025
Two years after the Supreme Court's Supriyo Chakraborty verdict called for legislative changes to allow marriage equality, queer activists are now focusing on what comes next: policy reforms to ensure equal rights for LGBTQ persons.At an event on July 12, the Keshav Suri Foundation, along with the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, released a set of policy recommendations aimed at making India's legal system more inclusive of queer individuals.advertisementThe event featured a panel discussion with activists and lawyers, as well as a performance by the 'Theatre of the Oppressed' highlighting daily discrimination faced by LGBTQ people.
Queer activists spoke about the continued lack of recognition for 'chosen families,' and how legal and policy gaps often ignore or exclude the lived realities of queer people.Former Supreme Court Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul, who was on the five-judge bench in the Supriyo case, spoke at the event. He noted that while discrimination is a part of human society, progress has been made through long-term struggles.He suggested that a law on civil unions may be the next step toward equality and praised the policy paper's proposal for a comprehensive family code as a starting point for broader public debate.The policy paper outlines recommendations to address key areas such as family recognition, anti-discrimination protections, access to queer-affirming healthcare and protection from violence. These suggestions build upon submissions made to a High-Powered Committee set up by the Central Government after the 2023 Supreme Court ruling.These proposals come after consultations with over 150 queer activists and organisations. The paper includes detailed insights into existing legal hurdles and proposes changes involving multiple government agencies.It calls for legal recognition of queer relationships, removal of discrimination in sectors like housing, education, employment, and financial services, and improved access to healthcare, especially gender-affirming treatments.It also recommends steps to protect queer individuals from violence, including training law enforcement and providing shelter homes.Lawyer Arundhati Katju, who has been involved in major LGBTQ legal battles, encouraged the community to 'protect the moments of joy.' Reflecting on how far the movement has come, from the 2003 Koushal verdict that upheld Section 377, to its eventual repeal and the Supriyo judgment, Katju highlighted increased visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ people.'Today, a government committee says two queer people can have a joint bank account and name each other as nominees,' she said. 'Now is the time to work with the government and push for real legislative and policy changes.'- EndsTrending Reel
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

National Sports Governance Bill: Will govt clean up federations including BCCI — or isthere a danger of overreach?
National Sports Governance Bill: Will govt clean up federations including BCCI — or isthere a danger of overreach?

Indian Express

time42 minutes ago

  • Indian Express

National Sports Governance Bill: Will govt clean up federations including BCCI — or isthere a danger of overreach?

nearly a decade ago, when the Supreme Court was hearing the recommendations made by a panel led by Justice R M Lodha, set up by the Court to suggest reforms to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, then Chief Justice T S Thakur asked the BCCI a rhetorical question: 'Are you refusing to be reformed?' In the coming days, the cricket board could, again, face a similar question. For years, the BCCI has acted on its own on governance issues. Through the National Sports Governance Bill, which Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, the government has shown a will to bell the cat. So far, the BCCI has resisted all attempts to bring it under government regulation. Its main argument has been that since it does not seek funding from the sports ministry, it isn't answerable to it. Unlike other sports, the cricket board, an autonomous body, isn't covered under the Right to Information Act, 2005. However, with cricket returning to the Olympics in 2028, it could be forced to align with other national federations and follow the standard good governance practices. The government aims to achieve this by bringing the BCCI under the National Sports Board (NSB), as the Bill envisages. The NSB will have sweeping powers to lay down rules and oversee the functioning of all federations — from unconventional games like atya patya to mainstream sports like cricket. Indeed, sports governance issues go beyond cricket. The Bill seeks to bring in legislation to improve 'the governance of the sports bodies and achieve better results in sports and reduce the disputes and litigation, inter alia, involving sports federations'. It relies on two main pillars — the NSB will be a SEBI-like body that will govern all sports, and the creation of a National Sports Tribunal, which will take the burden away from the lower courts and high courts. With the NSB, there are fears of government overreach and the question of appointing the right people, free of conflicts of interest or bias, to head the organisation. At the same time, there are concerns that the formation of the Tribunal, which will have the powers of a civil court and decide on disputes ranging from selection to election, could disenfranchise athletes and administrators of their right to approach the courts. Whether or not the government, through this Bill, succeeds in cleaning up the messy Indian sports administration depends on whether or not it manages to enforce its provisions in letter and spirit.

Ram Madhav writes: All parties should welcome SIR
Ram Madhav writes: All parties should welcome SIR

Indian Express

timean hour ago

  • Indian Express

Ram Madhav writes: All parties should welcome SIR

It is heartening to see the Election Commission of India (ECI) stand firm on its now-complete Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the upcoming elections to the state legislature. The Opposition parties have been stalling Parliament, arguing that the SIR is politically motivated and intended to deprive lakhs of voters of their voting rights. They threaten to boycott elections, too. The ECI is a constitutional body with autonomous powers and responsibilities. Those critical of its actions have approached the Supreme Court. They could have gone to the ECI itself. The Supreme Court did raise some concerns and sought clarifications from the ECI, but it refused to stay the verification process as demanded by the petitioning NGOs. The ECI refused to budge before the political threats and reacted strongly to their criticism, asking whether 'fearing these things', it should 'pave the way for some to cast fake votes in the name of deceased voters, voters who have migrated permanently, or those registered in two places, fake voters or foreign voters?' India opted for universal adult franchise at the time of Independence, which was not so common even in Western countries. The US reached that stage only in 1965 through the Voting Rights Act. Full suffrage became a reality in the UK through the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, 1928. Learning about India's decision, Britain's then-Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, found it appropriate to warn Jawaharlal Nehru that 'the Asiatic republics are few and of recent establishment. Their record is not very encouraging. They tend to degenerate into dictatorships or oligarchies.' But the Indian leadership had decided, while drafting the Nehru Report in 1928, that every eligible citizen aged 21 years or above would have the right to vote. B R Ambedkar was insistent that it should be a fundamental right. However, in its wisdom, the Constituent Assembly decided to incorporate it not as a fundamental right under Part III of the Constitution, but as a constitutional right under Article 326. This distinction is important to keep in mind because too much is said about the burden of proof being shifted onto citizens under the SIR. The right to vote, being a constitutional right, is subject to scrutiny from time to time for the eligibility of a given individual. In fact, the Representation of the People Act clearly stipulates several disqualifications with respect to the right to vote. They include non-citizenship, being of unsound mind, convictions for certain offences, non-residency, and being in prison. It is in exercise of these provisions that the ECI sought to undertake this SIR. It concluded the first phase of door-to-door verification with the help of thousands of Block Level Officers (BLOs) and other officials. Setting aside criticisms, the ECI declared that 99 per cent of electors had been covered through this exercise and that it had helped the ECI identify 2.16 million voters who were dead. Another 3.15 million were found to have permanently migrated while one lakh people were untraceable. This number constitutes around 8 per cent of the total 72.1 million voters in Bihar. There shouldn't be any controversy over those who are deceased or have migrated. Less than 1 per cent of voters failed to submit their forms about whom both the political parties and the ECI should seriously bother. This is not the end of the process anyway. The revised lists of voters will be supplied to the 12 registered parties by August 1. Parties will have one full month to challenge any of the deletions since the petitioners in the Supreme Court argued that the BLOs didn't do their job 'given the impossible deadlines'. The BLOs had one month to complete this exercise during which time they were expected to visit around 300-400 households. This accounts for less than 15 houses on a given working day, a task the petitioners think is 'impossible'. They even accused those BLOs, who often belong to poor and lower-middle-class sections, of harassing, cheating, and even seeking bribes from voters. Electoral reforms are never easy. It took four decades and an officer like T N Seshan to attend to booth capturing, bogus voting and impersonation. Seshan, a courageous officer, faced innumerable challenges when he attempted to clean up electoral rolls, introduce voter ID cards and force leaders to religiously follow the Model Code of Conduct, which was otherwise considered just a piece of paper by them. Attempts were made to impeach him in Parliament at least twice. Two additional election commissioners with equal powers were added, making the Commission a three-member body to curtail Seshan's authority. Seshan determinedly fought back and took the matter to the Supreme Court. 'I have politicians for breakfast,' he once commented. Seshan's efforts resulted in major reforms. More importantly, they gave teeth to the Commission, which was until then seen by the political class as a paper tiger. Subsequent election commissioners upheld the majestic and independent role of the Commission in conducting elections in a fair and transparent manner. Over the past few decades, India's electoral system, despite being of humongous size with 960 million voters and one million polling stations, has proved to be one of the most successful and efficient systems, one that several countries wish to emulate. The occasional revision of electoral rolls is a mandatory practice in any country. Given the large-scale migration happening in our country, the Commission's decision to undertake an intensive revision of the rolls in the entire country, starting with Bihar, must be welcomed by all parties. The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP. Views are personal

‘Don't lower the age. Just stop jailing adolescent love'
‘Don't lower the age. Just stop jailing adolescent love'

Time of India

time2 hours ago

  • Time of India

‘Don't lower the age. Just stop jailing adolescent love'

With the Supreme Court weighing in, a growing chorus of experts is calling for decriminalising consensual relationships even if the age of consent is not lowered New Delhi : With the Supreme Court hearing a pivotal case over whether to lower the statutory age of consent for sexual activity from 18 to 16 years, activists and experts working with children or dealing with cases that fall in the domain of 'consensual romantic relationships' bring into focus the various complexities and challenges the situation presents in courts and beyond for 'adolescents'. At one end is a strong view that highlights the plight of boys and girls caught in such cases — putting their dignity, liberty and right to protection as teenagers at stake. On the other end are activists, who caution that attempts to change the age of consent could present a situation that could lead to misuse and enable child marriage in the garb of 'romantic relationships'. In the case before SC, for instance, senior advocate and amicus curiae Indira Jaising has urged the court to read down the current legal threshold of 18, arguing that the existing provisions criminalise consensual adolescent relationships and infringe on constitutional rights. On the other hand, the Union govt has insisted that the age must remain 18 to safeguard minors from exploitation, warning that bringing down the age could undermine the country's child protection framework. An attempt to address the complexities was also made by the Law Commission in its report on the issue in 2023. It had advised against lowering the age of consent from 18 years. It also suggested amendments in the Pocso Act to introduce guided judicial discretion by the special court in the matter of deciding on sentencing in cases involving 'tacit approval' of minors between 16 and 18 years old. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Mini House for 60 sqm for Seniors with Toilet and Bath (Price May Surprise You) Pre Fabricated Homes | Search Ads Search Now Undo Swagata Raha, the founder of Enfold, a child rights NGO, has repeated her demand to decriminalise sexual relationships deemed 'consensual' — by creating an exception in Pocso for those aged between 16 and 18. 'We are not saying that the age of consent needs to be brought down to 16,' she told TOI . 'The current provision under Pocso, which sets the age of consent at 18, presents a situation where a romantic consensual relationship between adolescents is treated as a criminal act, on a par with sexual exploitation and rape. This is clearly damaging, and has long-term impact on the life and dignity of young people. To restore balance in law, this needs to change through the introduction of exceptions recognising consent of those above 16 years. ' At least one in four cases criminalised under Pocso is 'romantic' in nature, she said, citing empirical studies based on judgments. On the other hand, Bhuwan Ribhu, founder of Just Rights for Children, warned that lowering consent will open a Pandora's box, legitimising various forms of child rape as well as trafficking and child marriage. 'The law is being misunderstood and misinterpreted in the so-called consent debate,' he said, adding, 'No amendment to Pocso should be made until the current law is implemented in letter and spirit. With less than 10% conviction rate and compensation awarded in fewer than 1% of cases, the need of the hour is to implement the law before we amend it. ' Ribhu suggested that in 'genuine cases' of romantic consensual relationships, with appropriate checks and balances, it was possible to ensure protection without tinkering with consent. He felt Pocso could be amended to decriminalise situations, say, where there is a history of a romantic relationship between a boy and a girl and where the latter has been consistent in her statements before child protection agencies and courts, and where there is no gang rape or prior criminal history. However, child justice and criminal lawyer Anant Asthana feels that the issue can be addressed through amendments to Pocso — to create room for judges to exercise discretion with necessary checks to protect genuine cases of romantic relationships. Drawing attention to the lack of child-friendly policing, he highlighted the need to first equip police with a protocol to deal with such cases to protect the identity of the boy and girl. Advocate and founder of Independent Thought, Vikram Srivastava, said any attempt to alter the age of consent would open the doors to misuse and increase the risk of child marriage in the garb of consent, by the parents themselves, as seen in many states. 'Among socalled consensual relationships, in most cases we find they are entangled in a series of illegalities leading to elopement. Even for 'genuine consensual relationships', checks and procedural safeguards must be provided to filter genuine cases,' he said. Putting across the perspective of adolescents affected by such cases, Sonal Kapoor from Protsahan, which works with child survivors of abuse, said that blanket criminalisation of consensual adolescent relationships under Pocso, even when non-exploitative and rooted in mutual consent, stripped young people of voice, choice and agency. 'Lowering the age of consent risks weakening protections against coercion. But keeping it rigid results in young couples being dragged through criminal trials, humiliated and dehumanised by the same laws that are meant to protect them,' she said. 'The law must evolve. It must hold space for both protection of children and autonomy of young people.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store