Initiatives for Transgender Persons
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Initiatives for Transgender persons GS-I | Social issues Initiatives for Transgender persons This is the first-of-its-kind gender inclusive community policing initiative in the country, the Cyberabad police inaugurated a ‘Transgender Community Desk’ at Gachibowli Police Station. The desk will be managed by a police liaison officer and a transgender person who is designated as community coordinator. It will be the focal point for all grievance redressal among the transgender community in the Cyberabad Commissionerate. The desk will provide support to file cases in offences related to violence or discrimination against any transgender person. Among other services, the desk will also provide counselling, legal aid, life skills, soft skills training, job placements, and referral linkages to welfare schemes in partnership with the Department of Women and Child Welfare, and District Legal Services Authority. The Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) will also organise monthly training, employability, life-skill training, and facilitate access to job opportunities, while Prajwala, a non-governmental organisation, would assist the desk to facilitate a safe space for any transgender person who needs emergency transit stay. Over 200 transgender persons participated in the event, during which Mr. Sajjanar spoke about the need to build an inclusive society ensuring equal opportunities for all National Council for Transgender Persons Recently, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has constituted the National Council for Transgender Persons, under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. Background Indian Census never recognized third gender i.e. Transgender while collecting census data. But in 2011, data of Transgender was collected with details related to their employment, literacy and caste. As per 2011 Census, the total population of Transgender is 4.88 lakhs, highest being in Uttar Pradesh followed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar. In National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India case (2014), Supreme Court of India declared transgender people to be a 'third gender'. It also affirmed that the fundamental rights granted under the Constitution of India will be equally applicable to transgender people, and gave them the right to self identification of their gender as male, female or third-gender. Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019 The Bill defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth. It includes transmen and trans- women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons with socio-cultural identities, such as kinnar and hijra. A transgender person may make an application to the District Magistrate for a certificate of identity, indicating the gender as ‘transgender’. It calls for establishing a National Council for Transgender persons (NCT). The Bill prohibits discrimination against a transgender person, including denial of service or unfair treatment in relation to Education, Employment, Healthcare, Movement, Reside, Rent, public or private office, access a Govt or private establishment. The Act has a provision that provides transgender the right of residence with parents and immediate family members. It states the offences against Transgender persons will attract jail of 6 months to 2 years + fine. Bill also seeks to provide rights of health facilities to transgender persons including separate HIV surveillance centres, and sex reassignment surgeries. Govt shall review medical curriculum and provide medical insurance. Functions of National Council for Transgender Persons: Advising the Central government on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons. Monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons. Reviewing and coordinating the activities of all the departments. Redressing grievances of transgender persons. Performing such other functions as prescribed by the Centre. Composition of the Council: Its chairperson will be the Union Minister of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. It will also consists of: Representatives from 5 states or UTs (one each from the north, south, east, west and northeast regions), on a rotational basis. Five members of the trangender community (one each from the north, south, east, west and northeast regions). The tenure of the community members shall be three years. Representatives from 10 central departments. The council will have joint secretary-level members from the Ministries of Health, Home, Minority Affairs, Education, Rural Development, Labour and Law. In addition, there will be a member from the Department of Pensions (Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions), NITI Aayog, National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women. Way Forward The establishment of National Council for Transgender Persons which seeks to increase awareness and inculcate sense of respect and acceptance for transgender community, is a welcome step. However, its upto the effective functioning of the council whether it will able to identify the issues faced by the transgender community and accordingly advice the government. Apart from policies and regulations, there is also a need for an inclusive approach, sensitising legal and law enforcement systems in particular towards the issues of transgender community. Source: TH Recent Cyber Attacks & India's Cyber Security Agencies GS-III | Internal security Recently, the Union Power Ministry said that State-sponsored Chinese hacker groups targeted various Indian power centres. India has been attacked by suspected Chinese state-sponsored groups multiple times in the past. In 2009, a suspected cyber espionage network dubbed GhostNet was found to be targeting the Tibetan government in exile in India, and many Indian embassies. There were a number of subsequent attacks that targeted India. Such as: Stuxnet which had also taken down nuclear reactors in Iran. Suckfly, which targeted not just government but also private entities including a firm that provided tech support to the National Stock Exchange. Dtrack which first targeted Indian banks, and later the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in 2019. Documents released by WikiLeaks show that groups such as the CIA’s UMBRAGE project have advanced capabilities of carrying false flag attacks. Institutional security: The National Security Council, chaired by the National Security Adviser (NSA), plays a key role in shaping India’s cyber policy ecosystem. The NSA also chairs the National Information Board, which is meant to be the apex body for cross-ministry coordination on cybersecurity policymaking. The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre established under the National Technical Research Organisation in January 2014 was mandated to facilitate the protection of critical information infrastructure. In 2015, the Prime Minister established the office of the National Cyber Security Coordinator who advises the Prime Minister on strategic cybersecurity issues. India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which is the nodal entity responding to various cybersecurity threats to non-critical infrastructure comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY). The Ministry of Defence has recently upgraded the Defence Information Assurance and Research Agency to establish the Defence Cyber Agency, a tri-service command of the Indian armed forces to coordinate and control joint cyber operations, and craft India’s cyber doctrine. The Ministry of Home Affairs oversees multiple coordination centres that focus on law enforcement efforts to address cybercrime, espionage and terrorism. The Ministry of External Affairs coordinates India’s cyber diplomacy push, both bilaterally with other countries, and at international fora like the United Nations. Types of Cyber Crimes Stalking: Cyber stalking is use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone Hacking - is a crime, which entails cracking systems and gaining unauthorized access to the data stored in them Phishing - refers to the receipt of unsought emails by customers of financial institutions, asked them to enter their username, password or other personal information to access their account for some reason. Squatting - is the act of registering a famous domain name and then selling it for a fortune Software Piracy - is an illegal reproduction and distribution of software for business or personal use. This is considered to be a type of infringement of copy right and a violation of a license agreement Cyber pornography - includes pornographic websites; pornographic magazines produced using computers (to publish and print the material) and the Internet (to download and transmit pornographic pictures, photos, writings etc). Cyber-terrorism - is the adaptation of terrorism to computer resources, whose purpose is to cause fear in its victims by attacking electronic resources Cyber Defamation - occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and / or the Internet. E.g. someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends e-mails containing defamatory information to all of that person's friends Source: TH Recent India-Srilanka Defence Exercise GS-II | International Relations A team of 4 Sarang Advance Light Helicopters, Surya Kiran (Hawks), Tejas Fighter Aircraft and the Dornier Maritime Patrol Aircraft from