KATHMANDU: A new government report has shown that over 600 transgender people applied for jobs within Nepal’s civil service last year.
Activist have hailed the statistic as practical proof that the country’s commitment to recognising a third gender is making a real change.
A 2007 court ruling formally recognised a gender option other than male or female, and since then activists have successfully argued for third gender people to be given access to bathrooms, acknowledged in public documents, and included in the country’s census. In 2015 the country began issuing passports with an ‘O’ for other option.
There’s no news on how many people successful got jobs after applying for work in the country’s public service.
The report was highlighted by Human Rights Watch who also noted that employment programs designed to encouraged the inclusion of transgender people in other countries in the region had sometime resulted in unintended negative consequences.
A news story published at Global Press Journal in January highlighted that despite the legal changes many third gender people struggle to find employment.
