“Trans bill is against human dignity": Ritu Das
By PUCL Uttar Pradesh
PUCL and RAQS organized a seminar at Anjuman Ruhe Adab on the Trans Amendment Act 2026. The main speaker at the seminar, Ritu Das, founding member of Queers for Constitution, said in her address that the Trans Bill is against human dignity. Religion divides everyone on the basis of caste, religion, and food habits; the same has been done to us, that is, to trans people, this bill shows that it has been made with no compassion. Ritu said that people who feel that they should be in a different body than what they were born in have to undergo countless trials by fire like Sita, and this new and inhuman link is the Trans Bill. This bill validates all the misconceptions the society has held so far, which criminalize transgender people. She goes on to question the government for spreading wrong perceptions about trans people. The special feature of the NALSA judgment is that it underlined that gender will be determined by self-identification; this bill is snatching away that dignity. The government has put intersex and transgender in the same category, which shows their ignorance. This bill has been simply brought because of the inherent transphobia that exists in our society.
Chittajit Mitra, UP general secretary of PUCL and co-founder of RAQS, who chaired the program, said that we create stories about the community we do not know. To learn the truth of these stories, we must get to know this community. Gender is a social construct; people want to express themselves and wear clothes according to their identity. But the government is systematically taking away their rights.
Toshi who is also a co-founder of RAQS, sharing her experiences at the start of the program, said that this community is being forced into suicide because of social and governmental neglect.
Concluding the program, PUCL National secretary Seema Azad said that a fascist force is identified by being authoritarian; we all stand against it and must come together.