Bengaluru’s Regional Passport Office (RPO) recently witnessed a landmark moment after it cleared a request for gender correction on the passport of a resident who underwent sex-change surgery to become a woman. This was the first instance when a person’s gender was rectified on the passport in Bengaluru after a surgical procedure since the process became digitised.
The 28-year-old woman from Bengaluru– who sought the cage– underwent a sex-reassignment surgery or a vaginoplasty at a hospital in Tamil Nadu a few years ago. However, soon after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country and hospital where the procedure was done was shut down.
According to Passport Act and Rules, a person seeking gender correction should furnish adequate supporting documents including a report from the surgeon who performed sex reassignment surgery or vaginoplasty.
So, when a few months ago, the Passport Seva Kendra in Bengaluru’s Lalbagh road received the woman’s application, they began the procedures as per the norms. But due to incomplete paperwork, the process was delayed.
“We really wanted to help the citizen. So we suggested the applicant to contact a government hospital in Karnataka where the qualified doctor could certify her status” said Krishna K, IFS, Regional Passport Office.
He noted that this was the first of its kind of application seeking gender correction that the office received.
The west Bengaluru resident who applied for this change then went to Nelamangala government general hospital in Karnataka where a qualified senior doctor certified her gender status.
She then submitted the report at the passport office which was then ascertained by RPO through correspondence with the doctor as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The officials at RPO informed that the applicant’s gender-change request has been processed successfully and their updated passport will be issued shortly after the police can verify her residential address.
In a similar incident in 2021, a Bengaluru man requested to be identified as transgender on his passport. The 57-year-old got his passport corrected and ‘X’ was marked in place of sex. Passport authorities said that when there is no surgery done, there is no need for any supporting documents, and self-validation was sufficient. Hence ‘X’ in the passport indicates transgender.
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