PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa social welfare department has drafted a bill for setting up endowment fund for the welfare of the transgender persons in the province.

The KP Transgender Persons Welfare Endowment Fund Bill, 2021, was approved by the provincial cabinet earlier this month.

According to an official document, the transgender community is the most vulnerable and discriminated one in all spheres of life, and its members are socially, politically and economically excluded from the society resulting in the lack of their access to basic human rights and facilities.

“According to Article 38 of Constitution of Pakistan, the state shall secure and promote the social and economic well-being by the providing the facilities to the people irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race,”it read.

Activist says govt move promises economic rights to marginalised community

The document said that Section 6 of the proposed Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018, stated that the government shall take all necessary to steps encourage transgender to start small businesses by providing incentives, easy loan schemes and grants.

It said that a specific legislation for transgender persons focusing on their needs will help in protecting their economic rights and raising their standard of living.

Section 3 of the proposed law provides for setting up a transgender persons welfare endowment fund with initial capital of Rs50 million.

Under Section 4, the fund will be utilised for the welfare activities of transgender persons to bring them into the mainstream.

Besides, it will also be used for providing financial assistance and small-scale interest free loans to the transgender persons for small entrepreneurship and business development. In addition, the other uses of the fund are the training of government officials for sensitisation to the transgender persons issues, creating awareness of the welfare and acceptance of the transgender persons in the society through print, electronic and social media, workshops and seminars, carrying out research, and proposing mechanism for the welfare of transgender persons.

Also, a management committee shall be formed for action on the bill’s objectives. It will be headed by the director of the social welfare department and will receive application through the district officer (social welfare) from the transgender persons for financial assistance. Besides, it will also scrutinise those applications for the purpose of granting financial assistance to the transgender persons.

The management committee decisions shall be taken by the majority of its members present and the chairman may exercise a casting vote in case of a tie.

Qamar Naseem, a transgender rights activist and programme coordinator for NGO Blue Veins, said that Rs200 million funds were allocated for the welfare of transgender persons in 2016 during the Pervez Khattak government.

Mr Naseem said that the social welfare department had also prepared a PC-I to spend those funds on the establishment of a hostel and providing them with skills training.

He, however, said that transgender persons at that time demanded the setting up of a dedicated fund for their welfare instead of one time project, which could be setup with initial allocation and grants from donors and other sources.

The Blue Veins coordinator said that the fund would be first of kind for the welfare of the transgender persons in the country.

“It is a good step towards ensuring economic rights of the transgender persons,” he said.

Mr Naseem said that nothing had been done at the provincial and federal level for the welfare of transgender persons under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018, but the KP’s initiative to set up a fund for them was a welcome move.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2022