Bhubaneswar: The Odisha State Legal Services Authority (OSLSA), along with NGO Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India (SAATHII), launched a legal aid clinic for transgender people here.
orissa high court judge and OSLSA’s executive chairman Justice Jaswant Singh virtually inaugurated the clinic on Sunday. Under the initiative, various facilities such as support in terms of legal literacy, access to entitlements and services, including transgender identity cards, and protection and justice in cases of human rights violations will be provided to transgenders.
“The legal aid clinic, the first-of-its-kind in Odisha and third in India, will benefit the transgender community in availing of free legal aid services,” Justice Singh said, thanking SAATHII for extending their support in establishing the clinic.
Despite an increasingly progressive socio-legal environment, transgender people continue to face stigma, discrimination and violence in family, society, accessing public services and inheriting property due to their gender identity.
Bana, a transman activist from Bhubaneswar, said, “Alongside the legal aid clinic, the law enforcement agencies also need to be sensitised on gender diversity and issues of transgender persons.”
A recently completed intervention by SAATHII in 11 districts of Odisha, Manipur and Telangana served 3,679 gender and sexual minority individuals (60% of whom were transgenders), addressed 542 crises involving violence, discrimination and exclusion, and helped in redressal of 468 of these cases .
A large proportion of violence and discrimination was perpetrated by the general public (37%), followed by parents, sibling and other biological family members (17%).
Ayesha Behera, a transwoman from Bhubaneswar, said: “Transgender people in Bhubaneswar face violence in all walks of life. Along with the clinic, legal literacy sessions with transgenders is the need of the hour.”
orissa high court judge and OSLSA’s executive chairman Justice Jaswant Singh virtually inaugurated the clinic on Sunday. Under the initiative, various facilities such as support in terms of legal literacy, access to entitlements and services, including transgender identity cards, and protection and justice in cases of human rights violations will be provided to transgenders.
“The legal aid clinic, the first-of-its-kind in Odisha and third in India, will benefit the transgender community in availing of free legal aid services,” Justice Singh said, thanking SAATHII for extending their support in establishing the clinic.
Despite an increasingly progressive socio-legal environment, transgender people continue to face stigma, discrimination and violence in family, society, accessing public services and inheriting property due to their gender identity.
Bana, a transman activist from Bhubaneswar, said, “Alongside the legal aid clinic, the law enforcement agencies also need to be sensitised on gender diversity and issues of transgender persons.”
A recently completed intervention by SAATHII in 11 districts of Odisha, Manipur and Telangana served 3,679 gender and sexual minority individuals (60% of whom were transgenders), addressed 542 crises involving violence, discrimination and exclusion, and helped in redressal of 468 of these cases .
A large proportion of violence and discrimination was perpetrated by the general public (37%), followed by parents, sibling and other biological family members (17%).
Ayesha Behera, a transwoman from Bhubaneswar, said: “Transgender people in Bhubaneswar face violence in all walks of life. Along with the clinic, legal literacy sessions with transgenders is the need of the hour.”
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