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The passage of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday has been accompanied by a familiar, almost predictable. justification: protection.

The bill will offer protection for “genuine” beneficiaries of state welfare programmes for transgender persons, supporters say, and protection against these schemes being misused by those falsely claiming transgender identity.

Articulating this logic, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Medha Kulkarni said in the Rajya Sabha that the amendments would ensure that benefits reach the deserving people in a proper manner. “She said there is a need for a law that brings justice to real transgender individuals and punishes fake ones,” All India Radio reported.

To ensure that benefits reach the “right people”, supporters say, the bill removes the right to self-perceived gender identity. It makes verification by medical and bureaucratic boards mandatory for obtaining a transgender certificate.

The spectre of “fraudulent claimants” is being used to legitimise additional layers of procedural control.

But it isn’t clear whom the government believes it is preventing misuse by.

For a community that faces exclusion from housing, employment, healthcare, and even the most elementary forms of social recognition, the suggestion that transgender identity has suddenly emerged as a lucrative site of opportunistic fraud is bizarre.

Are there really self-serving individuals who might decide...

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