The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has appointed Gopi Shankar Madurai, an intersex activist, as one of the five representatives of transgender community to the National Council of Transgender Persons.
The Government of India on August 21 issued a gazette notification announcing the formation of India’s first ever statutory body for dealing with issues related to transgenders – the National Council for Transgender Persons.
The body has been created under Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. The Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Minister of State of Social Justice and Empowerment serve as the Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson respectively. Other members of the council include representatives not below the rank of a Joint Secretary from different ministries and departments, National Human Rights Commission, National Women Commission and NITI Aayog. Apart from them, five representatives from the transgender community are nominated representing different regions of the country who will serve for 3 years.
Gopi Shankar Madurai will be representing the southern region in the commission and is the first openly intersex and gender-queer person to get appointed in a statutory body. Ze is also the youngest member in the council.
Speaking about the appointment, Gopi Shankar Madurai said “Intersex people are often invisiblised in the legal and policy discourse. The distinction between gender identity and sex characteristics is also not understood. Being intersex, refers to sex characteristics. Intersex people in India do not have redressal mechanisms from human rights violations. They face massive barriers in access to health, education, public services and employment. To bring about changes in the existing governance regime, it is important to work and engage with the system. During my tenure in the Council, I plan to raise awareness about rights of intersex people in general and intersex infants and children in particular. I hope to contribute in developing a comprehensive legal protection regime for intersex people.”
Gopi, a native of Madurai was the youngest and the first intersex person to contest in 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. Ze coined the Tamil term for gender-queer people and wrote the first book on gender variants in Tamil.