Recognition, citizenship and rights: the dilemma of India’s gender non-conforming communities in the light of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act

ABSTRACT Recognition and citizenship issues play pivotal roles in understanding the complex interaction between different forms of inequalities. Citizenship should be treated as a practice intimately linked with individuals’ identities and rights, their sense of belonging and their actual nature of participation in the different spheres of their life. Exclusion is not just deprivation from the more tangible economic and social processes but also denying people their voice and their right to be unique. In this context, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act concerning India’s transgender community lies within the crucial junctures of identity politics and the country’s legal and social structures. This work critically analyses the TG Act and raises few questions on the nature of recognition given to transgender individuals. Does a transgender person get citizenship that guarantees representation and equality? To what extent does the new Act do justice to the transgender community in living as a member of the society and not just as a product of ‘othering’? The paper concludes that recognition is not just for citizenship and identity rights – it is the right to be different but equal.