Employee's son undergoes sex change, Railways authorities puzzled over pension payment

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A letter from a 32-year-old, who underwent a sex-change operation to become a woman, has put the Railways authorities in a fix. Such was their dilemma that they had to refer the letter to the central government.

The letter was sent to Chennai-based Southern Railways in mid-2018 demanding pension of her father, a retired employee who died in 2017, The Indian Express has reported. But with no clear rules on the “unprecedented request”, the Railways forwarded the letter last week to the Ministry of Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances, and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for “wider consultations”.

Officials told the newspaper that as per pension laws, sons over 25 years of age are not eligible for family pension. However, in case of a dependent daughter (unmarried or divorced), age is no bar. She is eligible for pension after the death of her mother, the wife of the government employee.

In her letter, the 32-year-old has claimed that since she was already “living the life of a woman” before her father passed away, she is eligible to get the pension as a dependent unmarried daughter.

Asserting that the government policy on the matter is quite ambiguous, a Senior Divisional Personnel Officer told the newspaper, “There is no precedence of a case like this in the 160-year history of Indian Railways.”

Another central government officer told the publication that the 32-year-old has furnished an identity card issued to her in 2009 by the Tamil Nadu Transgender Welfare Association so the matter was treated as a “transgender case”. “But even then, the law is either silent or at best unclear,” he added.

Officials said the woman lives with her partner, who is a transgender. She has been pursuing the case for over a year. Her letter has been under consideration at the headquarters in Delhi. The final will be taken by the DoPT, which is the nodal agency in the matter of family pensions in the central government.