India: Karnataka Reserves Quota For Transgenders

It was a jubilant day for the transgender community in India’s southern Karnataka state as the government issued an order to implement reservation quota for them.

The Karnataka government had previously issued orders of providing various facilities to the community, who are now included in the 2A category of the Backward Class Commission.

Transgenders welcomed the step taken by the state government. “We welcome the Karnataka government taking decision, you know, including transgenders under the Backward Classes Commission in the class 2A. We will be getting 40 percent of reservation for entire transgenders. Now, the Karnataka government has, you know, has included transgenders in the…saying that ‘Lingatva Alpasankhyatro’, that is general minorities. Under these general minorities, we will be having Hijras, Kothis, Kothis means persons with a feminine character, and also, we will be having Jogappas, where you can see them in north Karnataka, and also having Mangalmukhis,” said Akai, advocacy coordinator of an organization ‘Sangma’ in Bangalore city. Sangma is an organization, which works for the rights of the transgenders. The final report, in July 2010, of the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission had recommended the inclusion of transgender community under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category as ‘Mangalmukhi’ and inclusion of children of sex workers and HIV positive people as ‘Sankula’. The recommendations were first submitted to the government one-an-a half year ago, but were not implemented.

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