What members of the queer community suggested at a closed-door government consultation

Over the past fortnight, the Centre has announced measures to address the discrimination against the queer community in India. Government advisories have said that queer couples can apply for ration cards as part of the same household and that there are no restrictions on their opening joint bank accounts and nominating each other as beneficiaries.

These recommendations, among others, are the result of a consultation that the Centre’s Department of Social Justice and Empowerment held on July 25 with “representative members from the LGBTQI+ community, central ministries and states”. Between 15-20 representatives of the queer community attended the consultation in Delhi but there is no public record of the meeting.

Scroll spoke to six participants about what had transpired at the meeting. None of them knew why they had been chosen to attend the consultation – an official from the department had directly emailed them an invitation seeking their participation to discuss recommendations to reduce violence and discrimination against the queer community and extend social welfare benefits.

More queer-friendly initiatives may be announced, suggests a press release by the Department Social Justice and Empowerment issued on September 1 inviting inputs from stakeholders and the public to ensure that policies and initiatives for the LGBTQI+ community are “inclusive and effective”.

The participants, however, had...

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