New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS): The Delhi government has directed the civic authorities to provide separate toilets for transgenders.

Sources in Delhi government told IANS that the Aam Aadmi Party-led government has asked the authorities that existing toilet facilities available for persons with disabilities (PwD) should be earmarked for the use of the transgender community.

"Since such toilets can't be constructed immediately hence the existing facilities available for disabled persons in different parts of the city should be designated for use by the transgender community for the time being," said a source in Delhi government privy to the development.

An order issued by the AAP government said, "In compliance with the provisions of Section 22 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, for ensuring adequate welfare measures for transgender persons, all public buildings under all the departments, autonomous bodies, Public Sector undertakings (PSUs), corporations and local bodies of government of National Capital Territory (NCT) Delhi are hereby directed to create separate identified public toilet facilities for transgender persons."

In January 2021, the NDMC in its annual budget 2021-22 announced to construct toilets in its area exclusively for the third gender community.

IANS has reported that the NDMC has built one such toilet for the third gender at New Delhi's Shastri Bhavan. A senior official associated with the project had said that South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has started a process to identify some other places to construct toilets for transgenders.

The initial move towards this issue was made after the Supreme Court in 2014 recognised transgenders as the third gender and had directed the Centre and the states to create separate toilets for transgender people, among other facilities.