Transgender law must retain self-identification: Trans activist Maya Thakur

Shimla, The recently passed Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, should have included provisions to protect transgender individuals who do not wish to be part of any traditional eunuch community, said Maya Thakur, the transgender icon of Himachal Pradesh's Solan election department.

Thakur, a transgender woman who hails from Kothi village in Solan, said identification of transgender individuals should be done based on their feelings, not on the basis of genitals, by the medical board.

The measure amends the 2019 law, replacing self-identification with a "medical board" model. It also mandates reporting surgeries to district authorities and excludes those with different self-perceived sexual orientations.


"I was born as a male but identified myself as a woman. My identity is that of a transgender woman, we are unisex and not eunuchs," she told PTI and added, "We live in an independent country and every citizen has the right to live the way he or she wants".

She called for an amendment to the recently passed law to add self-identification.

"While verification is indeed necessary, it should be conducted through government-authorised officials rather than under pressure from any specific community, starting with eunuchs, who do not allow medical examination because they earn more as eunuchs," she said.

Penning down some suggestions in a letter addressed to the Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, she said that the practice of eunuchs forcefully taking babies should be stopped.

"Independent individuals are harassed under the pretext of determining whether they are 'real' or 'fake' transgender persons, which adversely affects their mental peace and professional careers. The Act must include provisions that provide protection to those transgender individuals who do not wish to be part of a specific Dera or 'traditional community eunuchs," she added.

The Act provides penalties for physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse of transgender persons. However, the amendments make obtaining legal recognition more difficult, she said.

There are about 35 people belonging to the third gender in Himachal Pradesh.

Drawing the government's attention to the segment of the transgender community that seeks to establish its identity outside of the traditional 'Kinnar culture' by pursuing respectable employment, she said that educated transgender individuals who aspire to be self-reliant often face intimidation and pressure from traditional eunuch communities.

"We must be granted the right to work within the social mainstream, retaining our individual identities, without any interference from external communities", she said, adding that the societal and employer-held perception that "every transgender person is a eunuch constitutes the greatest obstacle to our professional advancement".

The definition of the term 'Transgender' within the law must be sufficiently clear to ensure that a working individual is evaluated based on their professional qualifications, rather than solely on their traditional identity, she said.

Thakur, who earlier worked at an NGO in Delhi, advocates for lessons on transgenders in educational curriculum on the lines of countries like Canada, which provides for the right to an educational environment free from discrimination and harassment and use of bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

Her remarks come just days after the law, which provides graded punishment for bodily harm to transgender persons, received the assent of President Draupadi Murmu.

Opposition had slammed the Act for excluding self-determined gender identities.

An authority has been established to determine whether a person is transgender, a provision that also faced backlash from the opposition.

According to a law ministry notification dated March 30, the amended law will come into effect on a date appointed by the Central Government through a notification in the official gazette.