• Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, seeks to provide mechanism for social, economic and educational empowerment of transgenders
• The Rajya Sabha passed a bill on the protection of rights of transgenders after a motion to refer it to a Select Committee of the Upper House was defeated. The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill on August 5 this year.

• The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, seeks to provide a mechanism for social, economic and educational empowerment of transgenders

• A clause related to a medical examination by a panel for a district magistrate (DM) or collector to certify a person as a transgender which was earlier part of the bill, has been done away with, after reservations were expressed by members in this regard.
• However, in case of a child, his or her parents can file an application for issuance of an identification certificate.

• It is aimed at eliminating discrimination against transgenders and the government will form a national council for its implementation after the legislation is brought into effect.
• A transgender person will be able to avail the benefits of schemes offered by states as well as the Centre.

• The Supreme Court's direction in April 2014 regarding framing transgenders has also been kept in mind.
• The Supreme Court had recognised the transgender community as a third gender along with male and female in April 2014.

• Several provisions in the bill that needed improvement. "In case a woman is raped, the culprit gets seven years to 20 years and even life imprisonment, but if a transgender is raped, the culprit [as the bill provides] shall get only six months to two years in prison
• The transgender community has also been protesting for the bill to be sent to a select committee as it fails to address the fundamental right of a transgender to determine his or her identity but rather it confers power to the District Magistrate to grant identity certificate to Transgender applicants.
• The Bill does not include a provision that states what recourse a transgender person can take in case the District Magistrate refuses to recognize a transgender or refuses to issue a certificate of identity. It was also argued that the Bill takes away the right of self-identification of gender.
• Objections were also raised on the bill's silence on provisions relating to the right to marry and inheritance of property for transgender persons.

• The Transgender Protection Bill defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender that was assigned at birth.
• The category of people includes trans-men, trans-women, gender-queers, persons with intersex variations and persons with socio-cultural identities.

• Education Employment Healthcare Access to goods, opportunities, facilities available to public Right to movement Right to rent, live or otherwise occupy property Opportunity to hold public or private office Access to government or private establishment in whose care or custody a transgender person is.

• The bill also criminalizes denial of services or denial of use of public places to transgender persons and the removal of transgenders from a village or a household.
• The Transgender Bill proposes the establishment of National Council for Transgender Persons.
• The council comprising members from various central ministries, state governments, Niti Aayog and NHRC Governments will monitor the impact of policies, legislation and projects relating to transgender persons and address their grievances.

Infrastructure Development
Govt launches Credit-linked Subsidy Services Awas Portal (CLAP)

Relevance IN - Prelims (about CLAP + light house project) + Mains ( GS III infrastructure development)
What's the NEWS

• Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri launched Credit-linked Subsidy Services Awas Portal, CLAP of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing for All (Urban)

Know! about the portal

• The portal provides a transparent and robust real-time web-based monitoring system for credit-linked Subsidy Services, CLSS, beneficiaries.
• Using the portal, a beneficiary can track his application status in real-time.
• CLAP will be quite instrumental in addressing the grievances of beneficiaries in a much comprehensive and organized manner.
• The initiative would also benefit other stakeholders to work in synergy to release subsidy to beneficiaries on time.
• The portal was launched along with the signing of agreements between the Union Housing Affairs Ministry and state governments for the construction of LightHouse projects under GHTC-India.

Know! more about CLAP portal

• The CLAP portal aims to provide a transparent and robust real-time web-based monitoring system for the beneficiaries of the Credit-linked Subsidy Services (CLSS).
• The CLAP portal will help the beneficiaries to track their application status online in real-time.
• The portal will provide a transparent real-time monitoring system for the credit-linked subsidy services.
• The portal would also benefit the other stakeholders to work in unity to release subsidy to the beneficiaries on time.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban)

• The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) aims to address the housing needs of the population of the Urban Economy.
• The Credit-linked Subsidy Services covers the MIG segment for the first time.
• The mission is expected to benefit young professionals having an income of up to Rs 18 lakh per annum.

Light House projects

• The Light House projects are model housing projects that are built using shortlisted alternate technology along with physical and social infrastructure facilities suitable to the geo-climate and hazard conditions of the region.
  
  

Global Housing Technology Challenge-India

• Global Housing Technology Challenge-India was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2019 as a part of Construction Technology Year.
• The challenge aims to identify and mainstream alternative and innovative technologies from across the globe through a challenge process for speedier and cost-effective construction of affordable housing projects.

Bilateral Relations/Government Schemes
CWRDM proposes ‘Water 4 Change' with foreign aid
Relevance IN - Prelims (about the project Water for Change) + Mains (GS II Bilateral relations + government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• The Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) with the support of six prominent institutes has come up with a new project, ‘Water 4 Change', which will be piloted in a phased manner in Kozhikode city, stimulating long-term research and field-level action on urban water management systems.
• As many as six prominent organisations from The Netherlands too are part of the project, which will be considered for implementation in Bhuj, Bhopal, and Shimla.

Know! more about the project

• The core objective of the project, according to CWRDM scientists, is to provide communities and other stakeholders an integrative, fit-for-purpose and context-sensitive design framework for liveable fast-growing secondary cities in a co-creative manner.
• They said the project mainly addresses the disciplines of sanitary engineering, urban planning and governance, hydrology, ecology, informatics, economics and their applications.
• This project will address the need for an integrated systems approach for developing interrelated technological, institutional and financial solutions for sustainable urban water management.
• The project will address the complex challenges to urban water systems facing fast-growing cities like Kozhikode, Bhuj, Bhopal and Shimla, resulting from population growth, rapid urbanisation, and climate change

Parliamentary Affairs
The President of India launches web-portal of National Youth Parliament Scheme

Relevance IN - Prelims (about National youth Parliament scheme)
What's the NEWS

• A special function on the occasion to commemorate 70th Anniversary of adoption of the Constitution of India, - "SamvidhanDiwas" was organized in the Central Hall of Parliament today.
• On this occasion, the President Shri Ram Nath Kovind launched the Web-Portal of "National Youth Parliament Scheme".

Know! about the Scheme

• Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has been implementing Youth Parliament programme since 1966 in Schools under the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi and NDMC, Kendriya Vidyalayas, JawaharNavodayaVidyalayas and Universities/ Colleges.
• So far, around 8,000 educational institutions and more than 4,00,000 students have been covered under the Youth Parliament programme of the Ministry.
• The web-portal of the National Youth Parliament Scheme is available at www.nyps.mpa.gov.in.
• The main objective of the portal is to increase the outreach of the youth parliament programme of the Ministry to hitherto untouched sections and corners of the country.

The salient features of the portal are:-

• All recognised educational institutions of the country are eligible to participate in this programme.
• The registration for participation will be done by the education institutions through the web-portal.
• E-training modules, videos, photographs and scripts are available on the portal for online self-learning of the participants.
• After successful registration, the educational institutions will be able to conduct youth parliament sittings in their respective institutions.
• Each student taking part in the sitting will get a Digital ‘Certificate of Participation' and each Teacher-in-charge and Head of Institution will get a ‘Certificate of Appreciation' through the web portal.
  
  

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