Madhya Pradesh High Court Seeks State's Response On Plea Seeking Food Security For Transgender Persons In Indore

The Madhya Pradesh High Court last week sought response of the State government on a plea seeking welfare measures, including providing food to the Transgender community in Indore, in wake of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

A Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla directed the State government to file a response detailing the measures undertaken within a span of 4 weeks. The matter is slated to be heard next on July 27.

"Learned counsel appearing for the State submits that the Government has recently passed an order on 04.06.201 under the Food Security Act, 2013 for providing food to the Transgender and therefore, prays for time to file reply. As prayed, four weeks' time is granted to the learned counsel appearing for the State to file reply," the order stated.

The petitioner, claiming to be a social worker, highlighted that the plight of the Transgender community had been compounded owing to the ongoing pandemic. She implored the Court to issue immediate directions to the concerned government authorities to ensure that the basic needs of the Transgender community such as the right to food and ration are duly met.

According to the National Census of 2011, there are currently 29597 Transgender persons residing in Madhya Pradesh. In spite of such a demographic, the community does not have access to any welfare measures and is in dire need of financial assistance, stated the plea.

The petitioner also contended that there exists acute social ostracization when it comes to the Transgender community as a result of which they are unable to access ration facilities through the Public Distribution System (PDS). Since the majority of Transgender persons do not have access to government authorized ration cards, they cannot avail of such public aid. The petitioner also observed that most of the Transgender persons have not been granted Transgender identity cards by the Collector owing to which they cannot issue their respective Aadhar and Ration cards.

The plea further noted that out of the 1,000 Transgender persons currently living in Indore, the majority of them have suffered a loss of livelihood owing to the pandemic. They had also not received any ration facilities either during the first wave or during the ongoing second wave.

It was therefore urged that the State be directed to (i) provide 10 kg of free ration to all Transgender persons; (ii) provide additional food resources such as sugar, oil, pulses, and salt for at least 6 months; (iii) issue Ration Cards for the Transgender community; (iv) issue identity cards for the Transgender community in order to enable them to easily access government schemes.

The counsel on behalf of the State brought to the notice of the Court that the State government on had June 4 already passed an order under the Food Security Act, 2013 directing the concerned authorities to make provisions for providing food to the Transgender community.

The petitioner is represented by Advocate Shanno Shagufta Khan. Advocate General Purushendra Kaurav and Deputy Advocate General Swapnil Ganguly appeared for State.

Case Title: Noori v. State of Madhya Pradesh and Ors.

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