Recognition of Transgender Community in Domestic Legal Regime: A Comparative Analysis between Sri Lanka and India

Transgender is an Umbrella term to define the people whose gender identity and gender expression differ from their gender assign at birth. At present, the concept of transgender has acquired a great attention in the western world and the number of territories legally validate the transgender community and their rights through national legislations. Concerning South Asian context, the third gender concept is recognized by the Indian Supreme Court but unfortunately, the legal system of Sri Lanka is reluctant to amend the laws to ameliorate the position of the transgender community. This research mainly focused on transgender identity and the laws relating to the transgender community in Sri Lanka and India. The purpose of the research is to examine the existing laws relating to transgender identity in both countries. Moreover, this piece of work tries to identify the contribution of law in improving the position of the transgender community in these territories. Further, this work mainly used the comparative research method and based on internet retrieved documents. Through this work it suggests and identifies the ways and means to improve the condition of Sri Lankan transgender community. Recommendations will be made in this respect.