Woes of a transgender person begin at birth. Cursed, cussed, and ostracised, transgender people live on the margins of society. The spectre of hopelessness and despondency looms over them from cradle to their grave. They find safe harbour and joy not within but outside the society. My recent participation in a congregation organised by Vikalp and Gujarat Queer People’s Alliance brought this reality vividly to the forefront. Their struggle in getting a place under the sun exemplified what is wrong with the Transgender Amendment Act, 2026. Every testimonial that was presented at the jan sunvai (people’s hearing) revealed egregious flaws in the Act. The amendment seeks to alter the fundamental principle of self-identification governing laws related to transgender persons. Gender self-identification allows a person to alter their legal gender marker on official documents by making a self declaration without having to go through the excruciating process of a medical exam, psychological evaluation or gender affirming surgeries. The 2026 amendment has overturned this fundamental principle by necessitating a medical exam to determine gender identity, thereby hollowing out the agency conferred on an individual without regard to the havoc brought by it. The rationale provided by the state is “fakery”; the constant refrain one hears is that a section of persons could avail of benefits that are meant for transgender persons.Why the state’s reasoning is flawedFirst, is this not the same problem the state is confronted with when configuring benefits for minority communities like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes and others. Therefore, would the state deny benefits to a vast majority who fall under these groups only because of the possibility of a fraudulent claim being made? It is evident that this logic is often employed by the state to strip that section of the citizenry of their rights which is not electorally significant, requiring courts to intervene. Sadly, courts, instead of the beneficent state, are called upon to make the course correction which invariably drains the transgender community of their time and resources. This pattern is familiar to most marginalised groups. Also read: Government Has Dismantled Transgender Rights With Amended Law; Surprisingly, Nobody Had Demanded These ChangesA case in point is horizontal reservations which were fructified after hard-fought court battles. Good examples of those who received benefits of horizontal reservation, among others, are persons with disabilities and former servicemen.Second, is the state’s failure to recognise transgender persons’ right of self-identification. Self-identification received the imprimatur of the Supreme Court via its NALSA judgment (2014), followed by the legislature with the enactment of the 2019 Transgender Act until the roll out of the 2026 Transgender Amendment Act. The United Nations too has passed several resolutions urging nation states to align their domestic laws with the aforementioned principle. Of the many problems that have sprung up with the enactment of the 2026 amendment, the core grievance is the state’s inability to appreciate that a transgender person is a one whose mind is not in tune with the body the person is born with. Third, what is the benefit that a person will secure who, purportedly, falsely claims to belong to the trans community. Presently, apart from insurance, there is no substantial benefit available to a transgender individual. There are no safe houses or shelters; there is no provision for reservation despite the NALSA judgment observing that transgender persons should be categorised as “Socially and Economically backward class”; there is no provision for financing gender affirming surgeries for those who wish to adopt that route. Empirical data would show that many do not go through surgery because of the expense involved, paucity of doctors who specialise in this field, and more importantly the low success rate of such surgeries and the long after care period involved post the surgery. Stigma attached with being declared a transgender disincentivises persons not belonging to this group from registering as transgenders. Pejorative slurs such as ‘chakka’, ‘hijra’, and ‘bhand’ chase transgender people all their lives, rehabilitated or not.Fourth, the 2026 amendments are founded on mistrust and invasion of privacy. Medical exams and certification by an official who is untrained and unexposed in the field of gender-affirmation or therapy is a recipe for disaster.Also read: Trans People are Not People You Just See During Rituals, They are Citizens Without RightsAt the jan sunvai, the testimony of Ramesh, who said, “mein alag hoon magar galat nahin hoon (I am different but I am not wrong)” struck me. Another transman, Yogesh, said that while his family of origin accepted him for who he was, his neighbours stripped him naked to know what lay below the waistline. He also spoke of the builder’s refusal to allow a “kinnar” from occupying a flat, which they had bought with their own legitimate funds, because of opposition from other residents in the society. These testimonies brought to the fore the deep sense of hurt that transgenders carry and the flawed understanding of a vast section of the society. Some of us are, perhaps, unable to fathom the future, i.e., what if our children or grandchildren have the same dilemmas or challenges. What left me speechless was Maria’s retort to a bystander who ridiculed her for begging and not working because she was otherwise able-bodied: “Agar kaam nahi deh sakte ho , Aap koh koi adhikar nahi hai yeh kehna ka ki mein apni aajivika kaise kammah hoon”What needs to be donePlainly, the 2026 amendment is regressive for a variety of reasons. It moves away, as indicated above, from self-identification, to medical examination; it does nothing for providing shelter to those in distress, has no provision for employment, funding gender-affirming care, or for ensuring that specialised public facilities are setup in sufficient number which are run and managed by domain experts; and significantly, there is no attempt bring about legislative and administrative changes to increase awareness about issues concerning transgender persons, within the society at large, in particular, among those who manage institutions, i.e., police, doctors, judges and lawyers. Lack of awareness and sensitivity to what affects the lives of transgender people begins at the elementary level. Transgender persons, as wrongly understood, are not a “Third Gender”, an expression the community deeply detests. On issues concerning benefits and rights, transgender persons want society to recognize through the state and its apparatus that they are placed on par with other groups. Thus, my understanding of what emerged at the jan sunvai after interaction with and listening to the testimonies of transgender persons, is as follows: Need for upping the ante on awareness campaigns through a demand for embedding in the school and college curricula what being a transgender person means. An awareness campaign of this sort, to my mind, would bring a change in the discourse and make communication between transgender and non-transgender persons more respectful. Providing for horizontal job reservations in educational institutions, government and public institutions. Employment of transgender teachers and professors in educational institutions would go a long way in improving the lot of our future generations. Inclusion of transgenders in public service and the armed forces could be a good first step. Incentivise employment generation by allowing the private sector to create jobs at all levels as a part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. Noticeably, some corporate companies are providing jobs to transgender people, but most of the job opportunities, except for a few, are at lower levels and not in managerial posts. This is despite some of them having acquired graduate and postgraduate degrees. Provide safe houses/ shelters for those who are exposed to imminent danger either from the family of origin and/or complete strangers.Establish police stations or, at the very least, have a section within the police station which deals with complaints by and against transgender persons. Ensure officers who deal with such complaints are trained and sensitised.Take sensitisation campaigns to villages, suburbs and cities. Train, among others, bureaucrats, village heads, anganwadi workers, judges and lawyers concerning transgender issues and laws framed on the subject. Larger the footprint higher would be the probability of achieving better policy outcomes. Enact laws that disincentivise discrimination against transgender persons. I could go on. The list is long, but the suggestions mentioned-above could be examined and, if found suitable, baked into the law and policy framework after speaking to those who are impacted, which includes the families of origin or adoptive parents. It is poignant but starkly true that shame and ostracisation of the family and the transgender person is the heart of the problem. Dialogue and absorbing what is said by those who are affected, and routine review of policy and statutes will ultimately help bring about robust outcomes. Failing which, what the Supreme Court said bemoaningly in Jane Kaushik vs Union Of India (2026) in the context of employment opportunities for transgenders, may hauntingly come true. “..One may get to read a lot about their (transgender’s) rights in the statute books, but the reality is that these rights remain only an empty formality…”Justice Rajiv Shakdher is a former chief justice of the Himachal Pradesh high court.