The Karnataka government may soon have reservations for transgender persons in government jobs. The state told the Karnataka High Court recently that they have proposed a 1% horizontal reservation across all categories in government jobs, while replying to a petition filed against them for not providing reservations to trans persons. They reportedly submitted a draft notification, which says transgender persons will get 1% reservation under various categories. This means that within the job quota for SC, ST, OBC communities, and in the general category, 1% of jobs will be reserved for trans person who belong to those communities

The petition was filed by Sangama, an NGO, and an individual called Nisha Gulur. According to The Hindu, the petition said that the Karnataka government had not reserved jobs for transgender candidates in government recruitments last year. This, despite the landmark NALSA vs Union of India judgment of 2014 ordering reservations in jobs for transgender persons. 

Speaking to TNM, Mallu Kumbar, State Coordinator of Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum, said, “The Karnataka state policy on transgender persons had also said that reservation had to be provided to transgender people. However, it has not been implemented so far. This reservation of 1% is a welcome move but it needs to go further. We also demand that a proper census be conducted by the community itself to know the percentage of population. Once the actual population share is known, then the percentage has to be set accordingly.”

The Karnataka government had published a state policy on transgender people in 2017. The Union government had passed the Rights of Transgender Persons Act in 2019. The Act has been criticised by transgender communities in India for being highly problematic in many aspects — one of which is that it doesn’t provide for reservations for trans persons, despite the NALSA judgment ordering the same.