THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- December 9, 2017- Topic 2
Rights & wrongs — on Transgender Persons Bill
It will be a travesty of its
avowed objectives if the proposed legislation to protect the rights of
transgender persons is not sufficiently rooted in a rights-based approach. News
that the Centre has brushed aside a parliamentary standing committee’s report
and plans to introduce the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill
without changes is a disappointment.
The process of recognising the rights of
the community and seeking to protect it by legislation gained momentum in 2014,
when the Supreme
Court gave a landmark verdict in
the NALSA case. The court recognised the community as a third gender entitled
to the same rights and constitutional protection as other citizens. It called
for an end to discrimination based on gender against those who do not conform
to the gender assigned to them at birth. Besides this negative right against
discrimination, the court ruled that transgender persons had a positive right
to make decisions about themselves, express themselves and participate in
community life. It directed the government to accord them ‘socially and
educationally backward’ status so they could benefit from affirmative action.
In 2014, a private member’s Bill moved by DMK MP Tiruchi N. Siva was passed in
the Rajya Sabha. In the Lok Sabha, the government introduced its own Bill,
which was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment.
The Standing Committee, in
its July 2017 report, suggested some modifications and additions to the draft.
In particular, it disagreed with the definition of ‘transgender’ in the draft
Bill and wanted modifications to bring it in line with global norms. The
Committee felt that the definition violated the principle that transgender
persons have a right to self-identification of their gender. Activists and
experts have also rightly pointed to the absence of any reference to the
implications of criminal and civil laws that are based on the traditional gender binary. While provisions on
equality and non-discrimination would promote equal opportunity, in the process
the real benefit of reservation in jobs should not be denied. Social
legislation should not be merely benevolent; rather, it should be imbued with
an approach that extends to the marginalised sections the freedom, dignity and
autonomy that other citizens enjoy. In the domain of legislation, disagreements
over drafts are natural. It is up to the government of the day to adopt an
inclusive approach towards divergent opinions and come up with the best law
possible. Ignoring the opinions of experts and parliamentary committees does
not help the process. The Centre should revisit its draft and incorporate the
inputs of the standing committee and an expert panel that submitted a report in
2014.
Vocabulary
Travesty: a false, absurd, or
distorted representation of something.
Example: The absurdly lenient
sentence is a travesty of justice
Synonyms: perversion
of, distortion of, corruption of, misrepresentation
Avowed: assert or confess
openly.
Example: He avowed that he had voted
Republican in every election
Synonyms: self-confessed, self-declared, acknowledged, admitted
Momentum: the impetus gained by
a moving object.
Example: The vehicle gained momentum
as the road dipped
Discrimination: recognition and
understanding of the difference between one thing and another.
Example: Discrimination between right
and wrong
Synonyms: prejudice, bias, bigotry, intolerance, narrow-mindedness
Themselves: used to emphasize a
particular group of people or things mentioned.
Example: Excellent at organizing
others, they may well be disorganized themselves
Participate: take part.
Example: Thousands participated in a
nationwide strike
Synonyms: take part
in, engage in, join in, get involved in, share
in, play a part/role in
Affirmative: agreeing with a
statement or to a request.
Example: An affirmative answer
Violate: break or fail to
comply with a rule or formal agreement.
Example: They violated the terms of a
ceasefire
Synonyms: contravene, breach, infringe, break, transgress, overstep
Absence: the state of being
away from a place or person.
Example: The letter had arrived
during his absence
Synonyms: nonattendance, nonappearance, absenteeism, truancy
Implication: the conclusion that
can be drawn from something, although it is not explicitly stated.
Example: The implication is that no
one person at the bank is responsible
Synonyms: suggestion, insinuation, innuendo, hint, intimation, imputation
Benevolent: well meaning and
kindly.
Example: A benevolent smile
Synonyms: kind, kindly, kindhearted, big-hearted, good-natured, good, benign
