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On 7th September 2026, the Trans-Intersex Self-Respect Coalition (TISRC), TMRF-SA (South Asian Trans Muslim Rights Forum) and Voice of Intersex (VOIS) India Collective have submitted an 18-page document consisting of 75 recommendations to the Justice Asha Menon Committee.

The Justice Asha Menon Committee was set up as an Advisory Committee by order of the Supreme Court of India in Jane Kaushik v Union of India (2025). Headed by Justice Asha Menon, the committee consists of only three trans representatives – Akkai Padmashali, Grace Banu and Vyjayanthi Vasanta Mogli. The remaining are cisgender academics, doctors or legal researchers such as Sourav Mondal (Jindal Law School), Aparna Mehrotra (CLPR), Nithya Rajashekhar (ex-CLPR), and Sanjay Sharma (ATHI) – with Jayna Kothari (CLPR, NLSIU) acting as Amicus Curiae.

On April 22, 2026, TISRC, TMRF-SA, VOIS, Wajood (Goa), Pune Queer Collective (PQC) and Sampoorna Working Group, sent an open representation seeking the expansion of membership of the committee to include community members from under-represented groups, wider democratic, well-broadcast public consultations, and a public contact to which the community can send representations. The letter was published through TISRC’s instagram handle as well.

In May 2026, the Committee met with the representatives of all six collectives and assured, among other things, wider consultations and time to submit their recommendations. The committee also went on to set up an email ID, after its timeline was extended to October 2026. As per information circulated in community groups it came to light that through June-July 2026, the Committee conducted consultations with transmasculine, non-binary and intersex communities. However, the membership of the committee was not expanded.

It is pertinent to note that the Committee, even though a Supreme Court appointed one and dealing with the issue of securing fundamental rights, is yet to get an independent webpage with regular and comprehensive public information provided in one place.

The Supreme Court had directed the Centre to deposit a sum of INR 10 Lakhs towards the initial operations of the Committee. It is only upon the closure of the Committee’s work that we may be able to learn about the utilization of said amount.

TISRC, TMRF and VOIS Collective’s Joint Recommendations

In this backdrop, after independent community consultations between TISRC, TMRF and VOIS India Collective, conducted between May-August 2026, the three collectives have now submitted their joint recommendations to the Committee.

The primary question posed through these recommendations is — where is the executive mechanism for trans and intersex persons, such that any statute, right, welfare or entitlement may be effectively secured? The recommendations seek a separate well-staffed department from the Union to the District level solely for securing trans-intersex rights, with at least 45% staff being from the community, with additional provisions such as communal reservations to ensure equity and effective representation within such a department.

The recommendations further seek not less than 3% compartmentalized horizontal reservation in education and employment providing a detailed reasoning and basis for such a demand. Along with separate provisions in minority educational institutions set up under Article 30 of the Constitution.

TISRC, TMRF-SA and VOIS makes a case for operationalizing separate ID markers for intersex persons and expansion of the Act to Trans and Intersex Persons Act — a demand that has been made by the community since at least 2016-17.

The recommendations also consists of detailed provisions to ensure healthcare and social security access, and broad frameworks to secure substantive rights for the trans and intersex communities — prioritizing the most oppressed within our communities.

As noted in the preface of the recommendations, the central batch of recommendations builds of a set of recommendations submitted to the State of Karnataka.

The full text of TISRC, TMRF and VOIS India Collective’s Recommendations to the Asha Committee can be read here.

Note: This report is being published as part of recording community action. Insofar as mainstream media has interest only in publishing “human interest” stories about trans and intersex people, and no interest whatsoever in publishing clear assertions of community this self-publishing serves as such a record.

You can contact these collectives via email (mentioned in the document) or their Instagram handles, to support and/or contribute to their work.

Declaration of Conflict of Interest: The author of this post is also among the primary authors of the recommendations and co-founder of TISRC.