How Transgender Amendment Bill Erases The Existence Of Transmasculine And Non-Binary Persons [in India], by Soumili Paul – 26 March 2026

From Feminism in India

The Transgender Amendment Bill 2026 was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 25th March 2026. The bill was earlier passed by the Lok Sabha on 24th March. The bill came as a hefty blow to trans persons and non-binary individuals across the country. The bill seeks, as the Social Justice ministry has claimed, to identify “genuinely oppressed persons” while in reality it excludes transgender people, trans men and other gender minorities which do not fall under a certain bracket or do not fit the norms that are laid out by the provisions of the bill. The bill also intends to restrict the definition of who a transgender person is, reducing them to only socio-cultural identities such as ‘Kinner, Hijra, Aravani, Jogta, and eunuch’ and persons with intersex variations or someone with ‘one or more congenital variations of sex characteristics’. By providing such a narrow definition, the bill contradicts the NALSA verdict of 2014, which upheld the right to self-identify.

The Trans Amendment Bill 2026 failed to take into consideration the identities of transmasculine and non-binary individuals. These identities along with other trans identitites, according to the NALSA judgement, were to be recognised as transgender people. By virtue of their natal socialisation as girls/women, transmasculine individuals have not had the liberty or freedom to mobilise themselves as transwomen could. Thus, double marginalisation rendered them virtually invisible in society.

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Soumili Paul is an independent researcher and has completed her post-graduation in Sociology from Jadavpur University. Her interest lies in studying the lived experiences of Queer people in India.

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