KEY FACTS:
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) publishes an annual Prison Statistics India (PSI) report in which the composition of the prisoners is released. One of these categories is that of gender which only classifies on the heteronormative male/female basis. The Petitioner, Karan Tripathi, approached the Delhi High Court to include a third category of “transgender” in these reports.
ISSUES AND DECISION:
The issue before the Court was the representation of transgender persons in the official documentation.
The matter was disposed of as NCRB in a letter to all states and union territories wherein they notified a change in the way classification was to be made from the next PSI report. Furthermore, it organised a two-day sensitivity workshop for the inclusion of transgender persons in the gender classification.
SIGNIFICANCE:
So far, PSI-2019 report data on prisoners were collected under two categories viz. Male and Female. Now, NCRB intends to include transgender in the gender classification of prisoners from PSI-2020 onwards. Accordingly, gender classification of the prisoners will be classified as Male, Female and Transgender in the PSI proforma and Annexures. This order will make it possible for disaggregated data regarding transgender persons. It will also open debates about the treatment of transgender persons confined in prisons.