The Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Delhi has directed the civic authorities to provide separate toilets for transgenders. The Delhi government has asked the authorities that existing toilet facilities available for persons with disabilities (PwD) should be earmarked for the use of the transgender community.
“Since such toilets can’t be constructed immediately hence the existing facilities available for disabled persons in different parts of the city should be designated for use by the transgender community for the time being,” a source in Delhi government shared.
An order issued by the AAP government said, “In compliance with the provisions of Section 22 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, for ensuring adequate welfare measures for transgender persons, all public buildings under all the departments, autonomous bodies, Public Sector undertakings (PSUs), corporations and local bodies of the government of National Capital Territory (NCT) Delhi are hereby directed to create separate identified public toilet facilities for transgender persons.”
In January 2021, the NDMC in its annual budget 2021-22 announced to construct toilets in its area exclusively for the third gender community. The NDMC has reportedly built one such toilet for the third gender at New Delhi’s Shastri Bhavan.
A senior official associated with the project had said that South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has started a process to identify some other places to construct toilets for transgenders.
