Commissioner for transgender people calls for better database

ISLAMABAD: Unlike developed countries, the national database of the country does not contain accurate details about members of the transgender community, robbing the government of a key tool for bringing them in the mainstream and ensuring their socio-economic uplift.  The collection of evidence-based data to prepare a socio-economic profile of the country’s transgender community was stressed by Federal Ombudsman Secretariat’s Commissioner for Transgenders Syeda Viqarun Nisa. While talking to APP, she said that this was only possible through the involvement of ‘gurus’. She emphasised the need for evolving a system which could help the government take policy initiatives for the transgender community. Highlighting the issues being faced by her office in facilitating people who are transgender, she said that, “we are relying on the statistics collected in the recently-concluded population census, which shows that the country has just 10,400 people who identify as transgender. This data is not correct at all,” she claimed, complaining.  

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2019.