ABSTRACT
Examining systematically and continuously the workplace discrimination faced by transgender persons in India, this research delves into the fact that even though they are granted their constitutional and statutory rights, they still do not enjoy the same. Anchored in the post-NALSA legal landscape & enactment of Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, it delves into disjuncture between formal legal protections and their substantive enforcement. The research assesses the Act 2019's normative shortcomings (underenforcement provisions, absence of certain anti-discriminatory provisions, & certification regime that undermines right of self-identification). It uses constitutional jurisprudence under Articles 14, 15, & 16, and comparative perspectives to place the workplace discrimination within wider socio-legal exclusion, institutional inertia and market-driven bias. The research further faults State for its abdication of its positive obligations to protect equal opportunity in public employment and private employment spheres. As symptomatic of a legal order which, at same time, continues to be orientated in a cisnormativity mode, the problem is also with enforcement mechanisms, such as lack of effective fora of grievance redressal and sensitization of the institutions. To operationalize gender justice in the workplace, the research responds with targeted legal reforms, intersectional policy interventions, & with reinforcing regulatory oversight. While the research is primarily grounded in Indian legal developments, it contextualizes the discourse through a comparative international lens by examining U.S. and Argentine models.
