The transgender community has moved a constitutional petition before the Peshawar High Court against the deletion of a specific column for them in the form of the upcoming national Census.
Speaking at a news conference in Peshawar press club on Monday before submitting the petition in the high court, TransAction Alliance president Farzana said that the Census form initially had a column for transgender under the head of disabilities to which civil society had objected.
She said the government instead of rectifying it, deleted the entire column and now the Census form had columns only for male and female while there is no mention of intersexual and transgender.
Farzana, a transgender herself, said that the Census without documenting the trans population could wipe out the community from the development agenda of the government.
“If we are not counted in the upcoming Census, how the provincial and federal governments would make policies for us,” she argued.
The transgender community through the petition has requested the court to stay the upcoming Censes till the form is amended and a specific column for the trans people is included in it.
It is further prayed that NADRA should also be directed to provide NIC to transgender persons as per their self-identified sex.
Farzana, whose organization TransAction works for the rights of transgender, said the successive government had made tall claims of protecting the rights of transgender, but in reality, they were not ready to give identity to the trans people.
“TKP government says there are only 300 trans people in the province, whereas according to our statistics, there are more than 7000 transgender only in Peshawar,” she claimed.
“The exact data needs to be collected. The government should ascertain the precise number of female and male transgender,” she maintained.
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