LGBTQIA+ Rights in India: Govt issues advisories issued to ensure rights of people in queer relationships in Lok Sabha

Members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their supporters, participate in a pride march in Bengaluru on November 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar

The Union government informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday (February 4, 2025) that it had taken various measures for LGBTQIA+ communities and people in queer relationships, including issuing the necessary directives to protect the rights of people in such relationships to be treated as a family for ration cards, to be able to open joint bank accounts, and to be able to claim each other’s bodies in the event of a death.

Most of the measures listed by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment were part of the issues the Supreme Court had asked the government to look into in its October 2023 judgment that refused to recognise same-sex marriages in India.

While the measures listed by the government covered most of what the Supreme Court suggested, they did not include any measures that dealt with succession rights, maintenance, and financial benefits such as under the Income Tax Act 1961, rights flowing from employment such as gratuity and family pension and insurance, which was among the measures suggested to the government.

The government’s statement came through Minister of State for Social Justice B.L. Verma, in response to a question from Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal (BJP).

He said that the Department of Food and Public Distribution had issued advisories for people in queer relationships to be treated as a family for ration cards; the Department of Financial Services had issued an advisory to protect the rights of people in such relationships to open joint bank accounts.

The government said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had also asked States to provide for partners in a queer relationship to claim each other’s bodies in case of death but in cases where next of kin is not available.

It added that the Health Ministry had also framed guidelines for “medical intervention required” in infants or children with disorders of sexual differentiation (intersex) to have medically normal lives without any complications.

The government had also asked States to ensure that healthcare rights of LGBTQIA+ people are protected, including ensuring the availability of sex reassignment surgery.

The government went on to say that it has also enacted the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, set up a National Council for Transgender Persons to advise the government on policy and legislation, a national portal had been set up for issuing transgender certificates, and Transgender Protection Cells had been set up in 13 States to monitor atrocities against them and ensure timely processing of these crimes through the criminal justice system.