Research associates Ms. Deekshitha Ganesan and Ms. J. Mandakini presented a paper titled ‘Beyond conventional notions of gender equality: affirmative action for trans* persons in India’ at the conference on Affirmative Action and the Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality, hosted by the Tamil Nadu National Law University, Trichy (‘TNNLU’) in collaboration with the Oxford Human Rights Hub on September 22-23, 2018.

The paper was anchored on the decision in NALSA v. Union of India which recognized the right of a person to self-identify their gender. It also provided for treatment of a transgender person as a socially and educationally backward class of citizens, and directed State and Central Governments to provide for reservations in educational institutions and public employment. The paper explored the challenges faced in implementation of this directive. Their session was chaired by Justice S. Muralidhar and Prof. Sandra Fredman, Professor of Law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford.