The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched the National Portal for Transgender Persons (Portal) on 25 November 2020. This can be accessed at http://transgender.dosje.gov.in/.

The Portal has the facility for submitting applications for transgender certificate and identity card, as well as a revised certificate and identity card. In case of delay or rejection, the applicant has the option to submit grievances through the Portal.

For your reference, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 provides for issuance of a certificate of identity to the transgender persons. The gender of the transgender person, as recorded in this certificate, will be recognized and recorded in all official documents. This certificate of identity entitles the concerned persons to change their first name in birth certificates and all other documents relating to their identity. Further, a revised certificate can also be obtained if the individual undergoes surgery to change their gender. 

In order to avail the above services, the applicant is required to first register on the portal, by providing their name, email ID, contact number and details of their State and District. For the certificate and revised certificate, the application form requires certain additional details – name and changed name, the name to be printed in the certificate, parent/guardian, gender assigned at birth, gender requested, date of birth, educational qualifications, annual income, address, as well as an attachment of an appropriate identity document (passport/aadhaar card/ration card/etc.). Once the application is submitted, the status of the application can be tracked on the Portal. 

As per a recent article in The Hindu, the progress of the Portal has been slow. By March 2021, the Portal had issued only 277 certificates of identity and identity cards, where 1915 applications had been submitted. Out of the 1915, 1695 were found to be valid and 220 were rejected due to invalid or insufficient documents or for being duplicate applications. This means that 1418 applications were pending.

– Aakriti Chokhani, Advocate & Associate, Inclusion at Work