Kolkata, Aug 8 : Members of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer (LGBTQ) community hit the streets in Kolkata on Monday against the inaction of the West Bengal Transgender Development Board in fulfilling the promises with which it was formed in June 2015. The protest was led by the well-known city-based LGBTQ activist Ranjita Sinha who was in the initial group of board members at the time it was established in 2015 by the state Women & Child Development and Social Welfare Department.
“The board was created on the recommendation of the National Legal Services Authority.However it has been a while since the board has remained in papers , and there is not a single pledge with the purpose of its formation has been fulfilled.
The long-standing request of people in the community was an identity card that was separate from the others that the government of India promised to offer.However, seven years since the community’s creation this promise is still to be delivered,” she said.
Additionally, she added, that the promises of the reservation in the state-run schools and in state government positions are not yet completed.
Debangshi Biswas, a city-based LGBTQ activist, has pointed out that they’ve come to hear from activists in other states that the state governments are giving binary cards to members of the LGBTQ community.
“When the board was created the board also made arrangements for sex-assignment surgeries in the medical schools and hospitals at subsidised costs.However, that promise has still to be fulfilled.
The community members are either forced to pay for the more expensive private SRS services or travel to other states to avail the sameservice,” Biswas told IANS.
It is reported that another pledge of the board was the the construction of separate toilets for the public for community members.
However, the activists claimed that no such toilet has been built up to now, not even in the capital city of the state Kolkata.
Despite numerous attempts, the Minister of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, Shashi Panja, who also serves as the president of the board was unable to be reached for remarks, as her phone number was not able to be reached.
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