Guwahati: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Mrinal Saikia on Tuesday claimed that transgender people frequently harass people while asking for money at several locations throughout the state.
Saikia lauded the Assam government for including “transgender” as an identity category for those looking for jobs in the civil service in his speech to the Assembly on December 20.
”Today I want to speak about another problem in the state which has come from the transgender community in the state. The first is a transgender who faces problems on a daily basis. The second is the kind of harassment that people face from them is another nuisance. They spread around railway stations and bus stands and harass people in the name of begging money,” he added.
Saikia, an MLA from the Khumtai constituency, also cited IPC 268 to define what transgender actions actually entail in order to bolster his argument.
Notably, IPC Section 268 makes it abundantly clear that someone is guilty of a public nuisance if they commit any act or illegal omission that endangers the public or anyone else who lives in the area or occupies property nearby, or that inevitably causes harm, obstruction, danger, or annoyance to people.
Notably, transgender people have frequently been captured harassing others in public spaces including bus stops, train stations, taxi stands, and especially on trains when their level of harassment escalates.
Assam is the first Indian state to incorporate “transgender” as an identification category for candidates for public services employment in October 2020.
The decision to include transgender people followed a request from the Assam government to the APSC in a letter dated September 11 to permit transgender people to apply for the state civil services exams.