Context: Recently, the Centre has told the Delhi High Court that a communication has been issued to all the states and union territories to include data of transgender prisoners under a separate gender in prison statistics reports from 2020 onwards.
Key Highlights

• The decision was made in response to a PIL seeking a direction to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to make requisite policy and format amendment to include the data on transgender prisoners in the prison statistics reports.
• The NCRB intends to include transgender in the gender classification of prisoners from PSI-2020 onwards.
• Accordingly, gender classification of the prisoners will be classified as Male, Female and Transgender in the PSU proforma and Annexures.
• The NCRB has now directed the state and UT authorities to direct the concerned officials to prepare for collection of transgender data in the gender classification of prisoners while collecting data for Prison Statistics India-2020.

Why Special Category of Prisoner Data for Transgender is needed?

• Currently, only two genders appear in the Prisons Statistics India report published by NCRB i.e. male and female, to the complete exclusion of the third gender.
• The transgenders have been recognized as third gender in other publications like ‘Crimes in India’ and ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India’ by NCRB.
• The petition also argued that the absence of proper statistics on the number of transgender prisoners in India raises grave concerns on the treatment of such prisoners.
• The categorisation was needed to ensure their equality and protection under Articles 14 (equality before law), 15 (pertaining to discrimination of Indians on basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), and 21 (protection of life and liberty) of the Constitution of India.

Challenges faced by Transgender in Prison

• It is not uncommon to learn about incidents of atrocities in jails with transgenders, and without the transparency/recognition of transgenders in the Prison Statistics India, these atrocities are only likely to increase exponentially.
• The petitioner argued that without recognising the transgender inmates, the Supreme Court’s guidelines on the community could not be fully implemented.
• The Transgender people face specific and unique difficulty in prisons and jails due to ignorance, discrimination, and violence from guards and other prisoners.
• The transgender and intersex prisoners often end up in segregation against their will, sometimes as punishment, sometimes for protection and sometimes because prison officials cannot decide what gender they should consider the person.