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Rights of the LGBTQI community- a long road ahead.
The Constitution of India gives the right to every Indian to live with dignity. Article 14 and 21 upholds right to equality before the law and equal protection under the law. Anything that disregards dignity is a violation of human rights and is a way of discrimination. With everything that is going around the world, the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex are one of the core focuses of the world.
In August 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in NALSA vs. UNION OF INDIA that the rights of equality and freedom of transgender were protected under the constitution and in September 2018; the Supreme Court struck off Section 377 and decriminalized consensual same-sex relationships. This was a huge step and it opened gates of improvement in the sector of equality for the people in that community but that doesn't necessarily mean the people from the LGBTQI community enjoy full freedom and equality. There are several issues which need to be addressed. It's a long way to recognize same-sex marriage but before that many other civil rights remain to be addressed, such as the right to own and inherit property.
People from the LGBTQ community daily are harassed and humiliated for who they are. With this comes an increase in the cases of bullying of many. More is needed for the protection of people from this community. Primarily, students drop out of school because of homophobic bullying and people are denied jobs and basic human rights. Young people who are bullied find it difficult to persist and are likely to not succeed and more likely to be a victim of discrimination. Prevention of homophobic and transphobic violence involving those of educational institutes is much required for receiving quality education which is the basic right of every individual. Having said so, there is no protection against discrimination whatsoever as of now. Very little has been done by our judicial system to protect the people of this community. The Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act of 2013 mentions nothing about any other self-identifying members of this community but only protects women. With so much that has been done to improve and recognize the rights of LGBTQI, much more is needed.
Having said that, for the complete recognition of their rights legalization of marriage, adoption and rights against discrimination particularly with regards to inheriting property and employment is much needed. The basic human rights which are easily available to us are not as easily available to the queer community. The LGBTQI community is not weak but has a persisting voice which is slowly gaining attention for the recognition of their rights. It is a long path to finally avail all the rights which are available readily to non-LGBTQI people nevertheless, change is inevitable and with the change, the rights of the people from LGBTQ should be acknowledged as equality and freedom is the primary fundamental right and the denial of such civil rights is the violation of freedom and equality.
