A meeting was held in Vikalp’s office in Vadodara on 9th March, 2021, to facilitate the name and gender change for transgender persons by filling applications online on the National Portal for Transgender Persons,1 as provided under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, and Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020. A total of 8 community members were present. The portal was accessed by creating accounts with the applicants’ email IDs. A One Time Password (OTP) sent on this email was used to create a new password for the accounts on the portal. Registration on the portal generates a unique “Registration Number”.

The portal provides two options –
1. application under Rule 6 to change name and gender to “transgender”
2. application under Rule 7 to change gender “male” or “female” (can be done after any medical intervention takes place).
Community members at Vikalp’s Office for Name and Gender Change Meeting The first step was to fill and print out the affidavits2, and then get them notarized. Community members, accompanied by Indira, went to the state office in Vadodara (Narmada Bhawan) where one notary stamped all 8 affidavits.

Documents which had to be uploaded were:
- A scanned copy of the notarized affidavit
- A scanned copy of any one government ID3
- A scanned copy of one passport sized picture
- A scanned copy of the applicant’s signature
After successful submission of application after uploading all these documents, a completed table of “Applicant Details” can be viewed in one’s account. An email is sent to the applicant’s registered email ID, confirming the submission of the application, along with the “Application Number”. The status of these applications can be tracked via this portal. After successful submission of application after uploading all these documents, a completed table of “Applicant Details” can be viewed in one’s account. An email is sent to the applicant’s registered email ID, confirming the submission of the application, along with the “Application Number”. The status of these applications can be tracked via this portal.
- https://transgender.dosje.gov.in/
- https://transgender.dosje.gov.in/docs/Affidavit.pdf
- Aadhar Card, Pan Card, Date of Birth Certificate, Election Voter ID, Ration Card, Passport, Bank Passbook, MNREGA Card, Caste Certificate (ST/SC/OBC/Others)