Transgender people in India will now have the option to identify themselves as the third gender on train tickets, as the Railway Board has modified reservation forms to provide them with a “T” option, PTI reported on Monday. The board has asked all zonal railway offices to change the current “Transgender (Male/Female)” option to just “T” in all booking and cancellation forms.
The Railway Board, in a letter on October 17 to zonal officers, said they could include a provision “to capture the gender of transgender as ‘T’ instead of ‘T(M/F)’ as advised earlier” till a parliamentary standing committee reviewed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016.
Transgender people were recognised as the third gender in India in 2014 after a landmark Supreme Court judgment. The Indian Railways introduced the “T(M/F)” option on forms in 2016, which was criticised by activists who said it still forced transgender people to choose between male and female.
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