The Lok Sabha passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill 2026 on Tuesday after a three-hour long discussion with social justice minister Virendra Kumar stating that the protection of transgender persons was an “absolute need” and displayed the “moral power” of the Republic, even as the opposition called the bill “unconstitutional” and questioned the government’s urgency in drafting amendments to an existing law without consulting the affected community. Lok Sabha passes Transgender Persons Amendment Bill 2026
“In 2019, a bill to protect transgender persons was introduced in this very House. Now, we have presented another one which is sensitive, and amends a few sections only to protect those people, who on account of their biological condition, face serious social exclusion. Apart from granting rights, this law will also provide dignity and empathy so that transgender people live with equality,” Kumar said.
“Bringing a community to the mainstream is easier said than done. I want to assure the House that the community will continue to be treated equally according to the law and their rights will stay protected. This bill will strengthen transgender people and restore pride and prestige to the community,” he said.
The bill, expected to be discussed in the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing budget session, contains amendments to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. It redefines the category of transgender, removes the provision of self-perceived gender identity and excludes several socio-cultural identities as well as transmasculine individuals from its ambit. Furthermore, it defines transgender persons within a biological framework, based on intersex variations and differences in sexual development. The bill allows greater administrative oversight and reporting by medical institutions after gender reassignment surgery, and makes provisions for a medical board on whose recommendation a district magistrate can issue identity certificates. It also expands the offenses against transpersons to include forced mutilation, kidnapping, coercion, and exploitation, and provides stricter punishments ranging from five years to life imprisonment. However, the penalty for committing sexual crimes against transpersons remains unchanged, attracting a maximum of two years.
Speaking in favour of the bill, Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi of the Bharatiya Janata Party said that the biological basis of defining the transgender category was a “scientific approach” that would protect transpersons from “infiltrators” and “fakes” who “can take away their rights”.
Four other members of the parliament, including Kumar, spoke in favour of the bill. Telugu Desam Party MP Dr Byreddy Shabari said that several transpersons had approached her stating that people pretending to be transgender were availing benefits in her home state of Andhra Pradesh.
Eleven members of the opposition parties, including Congress MPs S Jothimani and Gowaal Padavi, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Supriya Sule, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Abhay Kumar Sinha, and Samajwadi Party MP Anand Bhadauriya spoke out against the bill.
“This bill is not a reform but a regression and fundamentally alters the relationship between the citizen and the government from one of rights to one of permission. It introduces bureaucratic hurdles in an already difficult process,” Jothimani, who represents Karur constituency in Tamil Nadu, said.
“What is the urgency of bringing this bill, when the world is at war? We would rather have discussed the economic situation of the country and the shortage of LPG instead. The bill is alarming because there is so much ambiguity in the criminal provisions that I fear it will be misused against people who want to help the transgender community. We are willing to work with the government, if it genuinely wishes to give the trans community a voice, it should provide reservations, education and jobs to trans people,” Sule, MP from Baramati, Maharashtra, said.
“To remove the right to self-identify is to criminalise a person’s own decision on how they wish to live. Why has so much power been given to the bureaucrat?” Bhadauriya, MP from Dhaurahra, Uttar Pradesh, said.
Since the bill was introduced on March 13, more than 88 organisations and networks working with the transgender community have held demonstrations, public hearings, and press conferences across the country to challenge the amendments. Nearly 40,000 individuals signed a joint statement which rejected the bill and called for a right-based framework; in another campaign, over 20,000 emails were sent to MPs across the country, asking them to reject the bill when it comes up for discussion in the Parliament.
On Tuesday, a press conference was held in New Delhi where several members of the transgender community, including Dalit rights activist from Tamil Nadu Grace Banu, Aanandh C Rajappan, who contested a Lok Sabha election in 2019, Mumbai filmmaker and founder of Sampoorna, a transmasculine support group, Satya Rai Nagpaul, and author A. Revathi from Bengaluru, spoke. Rejecting the bill in its current format, they urged the government to send the bill to a standing committee.
A high-level delegation of transgender activists met Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and MP Jothimani on Tuesday, prompting the party to issue a strong statement of unequivocal opposition.
“We are not your ardhanaari, we are not your aravani. We are humans, and we deserve our human rights,” said Banu.
“I am a 32-year-old Dalit intersex transman and I would like to invite whoever has drafted this bill to attend a gender sensitization workshop to understand the difference between intersex and transgender,” Rajappan said.
“I think we have to address the larger question of how the state sees us. If the state cannot see us, we are going to be at the mercy of whoever the bureaucrat is and whatever the ruling party of the day wishes to do with us. This is a kind of a disenfranchisement, delegitimization of citizenship,” Nagpaul said.
Last week, a four-member delegation of the National Council for Transgender Persons (NCTP), constituted under the ministry of social justice and empowerment, met ministry officials to raise concerns about the amendments and the lack of consultation. “I have never felt smaller as a person than I was made to feel that day,” Kalki Subramaniam, who was part of the delegation, said. “It was clear that there was a deep gap in their understanding of the transgender community,” Raveena Bhariha, another member of the delegation, said.