India’s Jharkhand state to create welfare board for LGBTQ+ community
January 31, 2024India’s mineral-rich Jharkhand state is ready to set up a welfare board for the LGBTQ+ community.
Kripanand Jha, secretary of the state’s Women, Child Development and Social Security Department, on Jan. 16 told local reporters that work has begun to create the welfare board for the LGBTQ+ community in Jharkhand, according to ‘Washington Blade’.
State government officials says the board will exclusively work toward the welfare of the community. Jha said the board will soon be set up and activated under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary at the state level.
“At district level, respective deputy commissioners will head the board,” he said. “A delegation of LGBTQ (people) in the past met us with this demand to work on issues concerning their welfare in a focused manner. Government has decided to work in that direction.”
Unlike other states in India that include Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram, Jharkhand does not have a trans-specific welfare board. The unavailability of trans welfare boards in the state has created serious problems for trans people who lack access to social security, education, housing, employment, health care and skills training programs.
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Jharkhand’s government, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the party that Chief Minister Hemant Soren chairs, is in a coalition with the Indian National Congress, the national party that opposed marriage equality in the Supreme Court.
Jharkhand has been the land of tribals, forests and minerals for centuries, yet the state is facing development issues.
In some indigenous tribes of the state, such as the Ho tribe, homosexuality has been acceptable for years.
Homosexual men are called “Kothi Panthis,” and there is no stigma attached to it. A 2001 report notes the Ho tribe’s population is approximately 700,000 and it is the fourth most numerous tribe in the state, but Jharkhand still has no welfare board to implement policies for the LGBTQ+ community.
The state’s LGBTQ+ community has “Other Backward Caste II” or OBC II status.
The Indian government uses OBC as the collective term to classify castes that are educationally and socially excluded from society and offers policies — quotas in government jobs and education — to bolster their position in society. Jha told the local media that Soren’s government is preparing an integrated plan from which the community will benefit.
“If the government is trying to set up an LGBTQ welfare board, I think is fantastic,” said Souvik Saha, an LGBTQ+ activist and founder of People for Change, one of the premier organisations in Jharkhand. “It is a fabulous step if the government is serious about considering the community. In terms of understanding the problems of the community and looking beyond the understanding of transgender people.”
“Till now, the entire understanding of the community was limited to ‘T,’ the transgender people, and there was not much idea about what others stood for, even under the trans community, there was not much idea about intersectionality and how they impact,” added Saha. “So, if the government has said that it is a positive step and it is a welcoming step.”
While congratulating the Jharkhand government, Saha suggested the government should have consulted LGBTQ+ organisations in the decision-making process because they better understand the community’s situation.
Saha told the Washington Blade that if the government is working with the LGBTQ+ community, the upcoming board should work on issues that include awareness and education about the community in all government departments, schools, police, legal departments.
“They are not aware of the community as of now,” said Saha. “For them the entire understanding stops at transgender people because of the Transgender Protection Act, there is no separate act for LGBTQ people.”
“The first investment the government should make is to make people aware of the entire spectrum of the community,” added Saha. “The challenges that the LGBTQ community faces in Jharkhand are multifold.”
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