On Thursday, April 9, 2020, the Karnataka High Court directed the state government to broaden the assistance under the ‘Mythri Scheme’ for the transgender community, just after receiving the applications from members of the community straight away.
The bench, with of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice B V Nagarathna, stated, “If transgenders (sic) who are covered by Mythri Scheme make an application for grant of the benefits under the Mythri Scheme, the State Government or the concerned Authorities will have to dispose of those applications immediately considering the prevailing situation and extend the benefits under the Mythri Scheme to all the eligible members of the transgender community.”
The court was informed that “1657 persons of the transgender community are getting a monthly pension of ₹600 under Mythri Scheme and on considering the current situation, two months’ pension is being paid to them in advance.”
A petition was filed by the Centre for Law and Policy Research on behalf of Ondede and the Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Centre for Study of Social Exclusion & Inclusive Policy, NLSIU.
To help the community, a number of reliefs were sought, such as free of cost rations, food, and nourishment along with the provisions including vegetables and fruit to members of the transgender group of people from ration shops. Also, from the other outlets, free LPG cylinders, waiver of the electricity bill for 6 months, ₹5000 per month for six months to transgender persons as well as free of charge access to medicines has been implemented.
The ‘Mythri Scheme’ was launched by the Karnataka Government as a pension system, ‘Mythri’, for the transgender community on February 21, 2014.