Third gender marked as a 'caste' in Bihar's caste-based headcount survey

The much publicized ongoing exercise of the headcount of social groups in Bihar by the state government has run into fresh controversy over enumeration of members of third gender as a separate casteCastes in Bihar will now be identified on the basis of codes in the form of numbers and each caste has been given a numerical code for use during the monthlong second phase of castebased headcount from April 15 to May 15For instance the subcategories of Maithil Kanyakubj and other Brahmins have been merged into a single social entity called Brahmin which will have caste code as 126 No separate enumeration of its subcategories will be doneSimilarly the caste code of the Rajput is 169 Bhumihar 142 Kayastha 21 and for members of third gender is 22 Total 215 codes have been allotted to different castes and third gender has also been considered as caste with the allotment of a separate caste codeTerming the state governments move of considering third gender a separate caste in the ongoing exercise as a criminal act Reshma Prasad founder secretary of Dostanasafar a Biharbased NGO on Friday told PTI How can gender identity of a human being become hisher caste Can male or female be considered as caste Similarly how can transgender be considered as caste People belonging to transgender community can be of any casteThe move is against the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Rules that talk about the prevention of nondiscrimination of transgender persons said Reshma PrasadThe social welfare department of the state government must intervene into the matter so that gender identity of a person should not be considered as caste I will definitely write to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in this regard and seek his immediate intervention into the matter Its a sheer injustice with people belonging to transgender communityAs per the 2011 Census the total population of transgender persons in Bihar is 40827Also read Bihar YouTuber detained under NSA for fake videos of attacks on migrant workersEchoing a similar view Grace Banu a known trans person rights activist and a software engineer from Thoothukudi Tamil Nadu told PTI over phone The move of the Bihar government is simply a social injustice with people belonging to transgender community How transgender which is a gender identity can be considered as caste iquestthere are so many castes in transgender community If the state government Bihar government does not know how to count the transgender people we are here to help themIn the path breaking judgment in National Legal Service Authority NALSA vs Union of India 2014 the Supreme Court made an authoritative pronouncement that transgenders be treated as third gender for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under Part III of the Constitution as well as under the laws made by Parliament and state legislatures This social injustice of the Bihar government needs to be rectified immediatelygender of a person cannot be considered as caste at all said BanuJustifying the demand of people belonging to transgender community Vidyarthi Vikas Assistant Professor A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies Patna said It must be rectified immediately Gender identity of a person can not be considered as caste There should be a separate column for transgender in gender categories Freedom should be given to them trans people if they want to disclose their caste identities In that condition their caste should be mentioned in caste categoriesReacting to this Bihar Social Welfare Minister Madan Sahni told PTI If they transpeople have any issues with the ongoing exercise of castebased headcount including codes allotted to different castes they must approach the department concerned and discuss with senior officials The Grand alliance government in Bihar has already taken several welfare measures for improving the socioeconomic condition of the people belonging to transgender communityChief Minister Nitish Kumar has always maintained that castebased headcount would benefit all sections of the society The enumeration exercise which started from January 7 will be completed by May 2023 The state government will spend Rs 500 crore from its contingency fund for the exercise The General Administration department is the nodal authority for the surveyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever