Srinagar, Oct 11: The Jammu & Kashmir government on Wednesday directed its departments to include “transgender” as a separate category of gender for recruitment in government jobs.
The government today also directed all the administrative departments to modify the relevant examination/service rules for inclusion of a separate category of ‘third gender/any other category” in the application forms in recruitment to various posts in the UT of J&K.
With this directive, the departments will now have to amend rules for keeping the option of ‘transgender’ in the application forms for government jobs along with male and female.
The move is aimed to ensure that the relevant rules are in conformity with the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights), Act of 2019, the General Administration Department said, in an order, quoted by news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
In 2020, the Department of Personnel & Training, Government of India, had issued a similar directive to the Central government departments.
On February 5, 2020, the DOPT also notified civil services examination rules- 2020 for inclusion of transgender as a separate category of gender for the said exam.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)Act of 2019, prohibits the discrimination, denial or unfair treatment of members of Transgender community in educational establishments, employment, health institutions and public services etc.
—(KNO)
