(Photo by Rahul Sapra via Bigstock)
The Indian government on March 11 implemented a law that allows undocumented people who entered the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and other neighboring countries before Dec. 31, 2014, to receive fast-track citizenship.
Parliament in 2019 passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, which provides citizenship to undocumented people who are minorities — mainly because they are Hindu, Jain, Sikhs, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian — who face persecution in their countries of origin. The rule that took effect this month does not include LGBTQ people.
LGBTQ Pakistanis face discrimination based on gender identity, violence, homicide, threats and hate speech, discrimination in accessing employment and access to housing. Lesbians, in particular, face challenges that include sexual harassment, violence and a greater chance of losing housing and jobs if sexual orientation is revealed.
According to the Human Rights Watch report in 2022, Afghanistan’s gender minorities have faced grave threats to their safety and lives under the Taliban regime. Even before the Taliban took over the country, former President Ashraf Ghani passed a law that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relationships.
According to the Taliban’s statement given to the Built, a German tabloid, before the fall of Kabul, the country’s capital, in 2021, gay people would be punished in two ways, either by stoning or by standing behind a wall that will fall on them.
A 2016 Human Rights Watch from 2016 notes the killings of several LGBTQ activists and illegal arrests by police in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s National Human Rights Commission in 2013 asked the government to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination. The commission acknowledged police physically and sexually assault LGBTQ people, and make arbitrary arrests based on an individual’s appearance.
Although India’s CAA does not fast-track citizenship for new arrivals but sticks to the cut-off date of December 2014; there are no records of any LGBTQ Muslims coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh to India.
The Indian Home Affairs Ministry says the applicant must provide six types of documents and specify the “date of entry” in India.
“These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in an X post on March 11. “With this notification PM (Prime Minister) Shri Narendra Modi has delivered on another commitment and realized the promise of the makers of our constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians living in those countries.”
More than 1,000 members of the LGBTQ community protested against the law in New Delhi, India’s capital, after Parliament passed it in 2019. Tejasvi Surya, an MP from Bengaluru and a member of the ruling party, said those who are protesting against the CAA, especially LGBTQ members want Pakistani Muslims to come into India.
“Let me assure all of you, you’re seriously misplaced. There is no iota of idea or freedom or recognition of LGBTQ rights in Pakistan,” said Surya. “You are proudly going about your LGBTQ rights and living a dignified existence here and fighting for a more dignified life in India because we are not Pakistan. So, if you let all the Muslims of Pakistan to come into India, then there will be no questions of LGBTQ rights in India.”
The applicant can apply for citizenship in India through an online portal with listed documents that include birth certificates, tenancy records, identity papers and any license, school, or educational certificate issued by a government authority in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The applicant needs to produce an eligibility certificate issued by a reputable community institution that confirms they belong to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian community and remains a member of it.
Rani Patel, an activist, and founder of Aarohan, a nonprofit organization that works with transgender Indians, said the LGBTQ community is always neglected.
“Every country has a set of rules and regulations,” said Patel. “We cannot encroach on other’s area. We can take care of our LGBTQ community. We cannot say that we can take your LGBTQ people. We have a huge population, and this is the government’s call.”
Guru Prasad Mohanty, an LGBTQ rights activist in Uttarakhand, told the Washington Blade that the Indian government has always excluded the LGBTQ community.
“The LGBTQ community in India has been left out in every sector and in every form, so I am not surprised that they left the community,” said Mohanty. “I would have been happy, not only me but all the members of the community, if LGBTQ community has been included in this.”
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