On 25th February, 2021, we visited Chhotaudepur to facilitate the process of name and gender change for members of the community, as provided under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020. The first stop was made at the office of the Department of Social Justice, where we met with Bhargavi M. Ninama. Here we were able to obtain hard copies of the required forms in Gujarati, a request we had made in an earlier meeting since the forms are currently available only online and only in English and Hindi. The forms were complete with the state name and symbol, as compared to the formats we carried with us which we extracted from the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020. A soft copy of all the forms was also emailed to us. We then proceeded to facilitate the filling of these forms (Form 1), with which the following attached:

• A self-attested photocopy of any government ID (Aadhar Card, Pan Card, Date of Birth Certificate, Election Voter ID, Ration Card, Passport, Bank Passbook, MNREGA Card, Caste Certificate (ST/SC/OBC/Others))

Then the affidavits (Form 2) were printed out on legal sheets as instructed to us by the official. These were taken to the district court to be notarized. After successful notarization, the affidavits were submitted along with the application forms to the Department of Social Justice where Ms. Bhargavi informed us that after the election cycle in the city gets over, the forms will be filled online in the presence of the community members who filled these offline forms, so as to facilitate the generation of a unique registration code which can be used to track the status of the application. In a couple of days, members were called to the Social Justice Department’s office to fill the forms online. However, the online portal only has two language options – English and Hindi. We feel that there is a need to provide a choice to applicants to fill the form in the language they’re most comfortable in, including regional languages. We also feel that the submission of forms should be facilitated both offline and online since we still do not have universal access to digital and online spaces.

After the successful submission of these forms, in March, the community members received their Transgender Identity Certificates and Cards. Community members were called to the office of Samaj Suraksha (સમાજ સુરક્ષા) in March where they received the both these documents.