In a move that can cheer the transgender people, the Karnataka government on Tuesday issued a notification extending internal reservation for transgender people in all direct recruitment for government jobs — 1 per cent of all vacancies under each category of General Merit, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and in each of the categories among Other Backward Classes will be reserved for transgender people henceforth.
Amendments to the Karnataka Civil Service (General Recruitment) Rules, 1977, also instruct recruiting authorities to provide a separate column to allow applicants to identify as ‘others’, instead of male or female. “...in all direct recruitment, one percentage of vacancies set apart for that method in each of the categories of General Merit, SC, ST and in each of the categories among Other Backward Classes, subject to any general instruction that may be issued by the government regarding the manner of appointment, be filled from among transgender candidates,” the amendment read.
The new rule will be inserted under Rule 9. Karnataka will follow the definition of ‘transgender person’, as described in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, of the Union Government. As per the Act, a ‘transgender person’ is one whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at birth, and includes transman or transwoman (whether or not such person has undergone sex reassignment surgery, hormone therapy, laser therapy or such other therapy), a person with intersex variations, gender queer and having such socio-cultural identities as kinner, hijra, aravani and jogta.
The amendment adds that if a sufficient number of eligible transgender persons are not available to fill up 1 per cent of seats, the vacancies should be filled by male or female candidates of the same category. The official notification amending the Karnataka Civil Service (General Recruitment) Rules, 1977, was issued on Tuesday, less than a month after the government submitted the draft notification to the Karnataka High Court. Submission of the proposal to reserve jobs for the transgender community came about during the hearing of a PIL filed by Sangama, which works for the welfare of the transgender community.