Women
Rape and Domestic Violence: The country has a stringent body of laws to respond to sexual violence, including provisions in the Indian Penal Code, regarding rape, sexual harassment, voyeurism, and stalking, which were effectively enforced by law enforcement. Additionally, special laws on child sexual abuse, use of technology, trafficking; primarily civil laws on domestic violence and sexual harassment at the workplace with expansive definitions; specific guidance on procedural matters in the Criminal Procedure Code; as well as a body of case law, government schemes, guidelines and protocols relating to evidence collection, medical examination, examination of witnesses, victim compensation, and other relevant subjects contribute to this framework.
The law criminalizes rape in most cases, but marital rape is not illegal when the woman is older than 15. According to legal experts, the law does not criminalize rape of adult men. Rape of minors is covered by the gender-neutral Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act. The minimum mandatory punishment for rape is 10 years’ imprisonment. The minimum sentence for the rape of a girl younger than age 16 is between 20 years and life imprisonment; the minimum sentence of gang rape of a girl younger than 12 is either life imprisonment or the death penalty. The Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offenses monitors sexual assault investigations.
The NCRB’s 2021 Crime in India report stated that 428,278 crimes against women were reported in 2021, including rape and domestic violence. Women in Jammu and Kashmir, northeastern states, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh, as well as vulnerable Dalit or tribal women, were often victims of rape or threats of rape. National crime statistics indicated Dalit women were disproportionately victimized. The law criminalizes rape in most cases, but marital rape is not illegal when the woman is older than 15. According to legal experts, the law does not criminalize rape of adult men. Rape of minors is covered by the gender-neutral Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act. The minimum mandatory punishment for rape is 10 years’ imprisonment. The minimum sentence for the rape of a girl younger than age 16 is between 20 years and life imprisonment; the minimum sentence of gang rape of a girl younger than 12 is either life imprisonment or the death penalty. The Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offenses monitors sexual assault investigations.
Law enforcement and legal recourse for rape survivors were inadequate, and the judicial system was unable to address the problem effectively. Police sometimes worked to reconcile rape survivors and their attackers. In some cases, they encouraged women rape survivors to marry their attackers.
The NGO International Center for Research on Women noted low conviction rates in rape cases was one of the main reasons sexual violence continued unabated and at times unreported. NGOs observed the length of trials, lack of victim support, and inadequate protection of witnesses and survivors remained major concerns and were more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The government sought to expedite cases involving women by setting up more than 1,000 fast-track special courts to handle pending rape cases. In addition, several high courts also directed state governments to establish more fast-track courts to promptly dispose of pending rape cases.
Civil society organizations provided awareness and survivor-centered, nonstigmatizing, confidential, and free care to victims of violence and facilitate referrals to tertiary care, social welfare, and legal services. Some also provided short-term shelter for women and child survivors of rape. These services were intended to encourage women and children to come forward and report cases.
Additionally, the central government implemented programs to improve the safety and security of women while reporting violence. This included centers for reporting and accessing health support, women help desks at police stations to facilitate reporting, an emergency response support system via a mobile application for reporting emergencies, and training programs for police, prosecutors, medical officers, and the judiciary to respond to victims in compassionate and respectful ways.
According to an August 22 media report, six individuals gang-raped a girl, age 13, for four days in Patna. The accused abandoned her at the Dumraon railway station in Buxar after multiple rape incidents. Police later arrested two of the accused, while four others remained at large.
On September 2, a tribal girl, age 14, was raped and hanged from a tree in Jharkhand’s Dumka district. The girl was pregnant when killed. On September 3, the Jharkhand Police arrested Arman Ansari on charges of rape and murder. Ansari had allegedly sexually exploited the victim on the pretext of marriage.
In October, 11 men who were serving life sentences after being convicted of gang raping Bilkis Bano and killing 14 members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots, including her daughter, age 3, were released from prison upon eligibility for parole under court sentencing guidelines.
Domestic violence continued to be a problem. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown led to increased instances of domestic violence. Women and children were more vulnerable due to loss of livelihood of the perpetrator and the family being forced to remain indoors, where victims were locked in with their abusers with limited means to escape or access to resources.
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): No national law addresses the practice of FGM/C. According to human rights groups and media reports, between 70 and 90 percent of Dawoodi Bohras, a population of approximately one million persons concentrated in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Delhi, practiced FGM/C.
Other Forms of Gender-based Violence: The law forbids the acceptance of marriage dowries, but many families continued to offer and accept dowries, and dowry disputes remained a serious problem. NCRB data showed a total of 6,753 dowry-related deaths in 2021, compared with 7,045 in 2020. The highest number of cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh with 2,235 victims. Most states employed dowry prohibition officers. A 2010 Supreme Court ruling mandates all trial courts to charge defendants in dowry death cases with murder.
On July 28, a newly married woman, age 21, was allegedly forced by her husband and in-laws to drink acid at Manjhaul in Bihar’s Begusarai district. She died at the hospital on August 3. The woman’s family members alleged that she was being tortured by her husband and in-laws, as the family could not pay a dowry or gift a motorcycle upon her marriage. Police later arrested her husband.
On August 5, a girl, age 17, sustained injuries in an acid attack in Jharkhand’s Chatra District. She was airlifted to New Delhi for treatment. Police arrested the alleged perpetrator, who also injured the victim’s mother in the attack.
There were reports women and girls in the devadasi system of symbolic marriages to Hindu deities (a form of so-called ritual prostitution) were victims of rape or sexual abuse at the hands of priests and temple patrons, including sex trafficking. This practice was found in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, and it almost always targeted girls from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. NGOs suggested families exploited some girls from lower castes to mitigate household financial burdens and the prospect of marriage dowries. The practice deprived girls of their education and reproductive rights and subjected them to stigma and discrimination.
Legislation in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra prohibits the devadasi system and provides rehabilitation services to women and girls affected by the practice. Enforcement of these laws remained lax.
No federal law addresses accusations of witchcraft. Authorities may use other legal provisions as an alternative for an individual accused of witchcraft. The NCRB reported 68 deaths with witchcraft listed as the motive in 2021. Madhya Pradesh registered 18 cases of killings against those accused of witchcraft. Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Assam, and Jharkhand have laws criminalizing accusing others of witchcraft.
On February 18, villagers in the Nawada district of Bihar set a woman on fire and stoned her to death on suspicion of practicing witchcraft. According to media reports, the villagers believed the woman, identified as Sarita Devi, was responsible for the unnatural death of a boy in the village a few days prior.
On September 25, four members of a family, including three women, were forced to consume human excrement and tortured with a hot iron rod in Jharkhand’s Dumka district over allegations they practiced witchcraft. Police registered a case against six individuals.
Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment remained a serious problem. Laws addressing sexual harassment were effectively enforced. Authorities required all state departments and institutions with more than 50 employees to operate committees to prevent and address sexual harassment, often referred to as “eve teasing.” By law sexual harassment includes one or more unwelcome acts or behavior, such as physical contact, a request for sexual favors, making sexually suggestive remarks, or showing pornography.
Reproductive Rights: There were reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities. Some women, especially poor and lower-caste women, reportedly were pressured by their husbands and families to have tubal ligations or hysterectomies. The government provided monetary compensation for the wage loss, transportation costs, drugs and dressing, and follow-up visits to women accepting contraceptive methods, including voluntary sterilization. There were no formal restrictions on access to other forms of family planning; however, despite recent efforts to expand the range of contraceptive choices, voluntary sterilization remained the preferred method due to the costs and limited availability of alternative contraceptive choices.
Policies and guidelines that penalize families with more than two children were not widely enforced but remained in place in various states. Certain states continued to maintain quotas for government jobs and subsidies for adults with no more than two children. For example, Assam linked a two-child policy to accessing state government benefits and running for certain offices.
Many states promoted female sterilization as a family planning method, which resulted in risky, substandard procedures and limited access to nonpermanent methods. The central government does not have the authority to regulate state public health policies. Authorities in some areas paid health workers and facilities a fixed amount for each sterilization procedure and imposed quotas for female sterilizations. Care received by women, especially those from marginalized and low-income groups, at public health facilities was often inadequate, contributing to a reluctance to seek treatment. Government initiatives resulted in a significant increase in institutional births, but there were reports that health facilities continued to be overburdened, underequipped, and undersupplied.
The reproductive rights of individuals and couples are codified in several laws and judicial decisions articulating rights enumerated in the constitution. Additionally, in August the government announced the transgender community would receive annual health-care coverage of 500,000 INR ($6,000), which could include gender reassignment surgery and other care. The law mandates that women are guaranteed voluntary access to a full range of contraception methods. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 reported 9 percent of married women between the ages of 15 and 49 said they did not receive adequate family planning resources, which was down from 13 percent in NFHS 4. Additionally, 4 percent of women reported wanting to stop or delay childbearing but could not access contraception, compared with 6 percent in 2021.
The government permitted health clinics and local NGOs to freely disseminate information about family planning. Federal government guidelines explicitly state sterilization is an option among various family planning methods and every person should voluntarily choose the alternative best suited for their needs.
The government recognized the role of health-care professionals in treating survivors of sexual violence and implements protocols that meet the international standards of medical care for victims. Government directives instruct health facilities to ensure survivors of all forms of sexual violence receive immediate access to health-care services including emergency contraception, access to safe abortion services, police protection, emergency shelter, forensic services and referrals for legal aid and other services. Implementation of the guidelines was uneven due to limited resources and social stigma. NGOs noted the COVID-19 lockdown adversely affected survivor access to sexual and reproductive health care.
Abortions may be conducted within 20 weeks of gestation on one doctor’s advice and between 20 and 24 weeks of gestation on the advice of two doctors in specific cases, including victims of rape (excluding marital rape). The law prohibits the use of all technologies for the purpose of sex selection before or after conception.
On September 29, the Supreme Court ruled that all women are entitled to a safe and legal abortion, and that making any distinctions between a married and an unmarried woman in this regard is “artificial and constitutionally unsustainable.” The court ruled that marital status cannot be grounds to deprive a woman of the right to abortion and that all women are entitled to terminate an unwanted pregnancy within 24 weeks.
Limited access to quality reproductive and maternal health care services – including prenatal care, skilled care at childbirth, and support in the weeks after childbirth – contributed to maternal mortality. In March the Registrar General released a special bulletin on the country’s maternal mortality rate (MMR), which dropped from 113 in 100,000 during 2016-18 to 103 in 100,000 during 2017-19. Seven states – Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, and Assam – had a “very high” MMR of 130+ in 100,000 live births. Punjab, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal had a “high” MMR of 100-130 deaths per 100,000 live births. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar saw the largest drop in MMR, while West Bengal, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh recorded an increase in MMR. The percentage of women receiving the recommended number of prenatal care visits, delivering at a health facility, and receiving a postnatal checkup were lowest among those from the poorest households. Some observers cited health-care privatization initiatives as contributing to a reduction in accessibility to care among disadvantaged groups.
The country made progress on key maternal and newborn health indicators. For example, the new NFHS 5 showed the number of institutional births had increased to 89 percent, compared with 79 percent in the prior NFHS. Fifty-eight percent of women who gave birth received the recommended minimum of four prenatal care visits, compared with 51 percent in 2015-16. Seventy-eight percent of women who gave birth received a postnatal checkup within 48 hours of delivery, compared with 62 percent in the prior NFHS.
Discrimination: Women faced discrimination in employment and occupation, and in access to credit. Many tribal land systems, including in Bihar, deny tribal women the right to own land. Other laws or customs relating to the ownership of assets and land accord women little control over land use, retention, or sale. The government did not effectively enforce discrimination laws.
Gender-biased Sex Selection: The law bans sex determination tests, the use of all technologies for the purpose of selecting a fetus’s gender, and sex-based abortions. A Pew Research study released in August indicated the country’s sex ratio improved from 109.3 boys per 100 girls in 2015 to 108 boys per 100 girls in 2020. The study said the most improvement was in the Sikh population due to states implementing “girl child promotion” programs to counter prenatal sex selection.
Systemic Racial or Ethnic Violence and Discrimination
The constitution prohibits discrimination against any citizen on the grounds of religion, race, caste, or place of birth. The registration of castes and tribes continued for the purpose of affirmative action programs, as the federal and state governments continued to implement programs for members of lower-caste groups to provide better quality housing, quotas in schools, government jobs, and access to subsidized foods. Critics claimed many of the programs to assist the lower castes suffered from poor implementation, corruption, or both.
Discrimination against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC/ST) continued to be a problem, particularly in rural areas. The NCRB reported 50,900 crimes against Scheduled Castes in 2021. A report by the Parliament Standing Committee on Home Affairs on atrocities and crimes against women and children highlighted the poor conviction rates and high pendency of cases related to crimes against women belonging to SC/ST. The report stated that while there had been an increase of approximately 16 percent in crimes against women and children from SC/ST communities in 2017-19, the conviction rate under the Prevention of Atrocities Act in the same period had been as low as 27 percent, with pendency at 84 percent. In August, the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery stated that “in India, child labor, caste-based discrimination, and poverty are closely interlinked.”
NGOs reported Dalit students were sometimes denied admission to certain schools because of their caste, required to present caste certification prior to admission, barred from morning prayers, asked to sit in the back of the class, or forced to clean school toilets while being denied access to the same facilities. There were also reports some teachers refused to correct the homework of Dalit children, refused to provide midday meals to Dalit children, and asked Dalit children to sit separately from children of upper-caste families.
On May 11, police arrested former village head Rajbir Tyagi and an associate in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, after Tyagi was allegedly filmed threatening members of the Dalit community with a fine of 5,000 INR ($60) and 50 slaps with a shoe if they approached upper-caste farms and wells.
Indigenous Peoples
The constitution provides for the social, economic, and political rights of disadvantaged groups of Indigenous persons. The law provides special status for Indigenous individuals, but authorities often denied their rights in practice.
In most of the northeastern states, where Indigenous groups constituted most of the states’ populations, the law provides for tribal rights, but some local authorities disregarded these provisions. The law prohibits any nontribal person, including citizens from other states, from crossing a government-established inner boundary without a valid permit. No one may remove rubber, wax, ivory, or other forest products from protected areas without authorization. Tribal authorities must also approve the sale of land to nontribal persons.
Tribal leaders in Telangana accused the state government of impinging on the forest rights of tribal communities. Farmers contended the state forest department destroyed their crops without prior notice and attempted to forcibly remove them from their land. On August 6, police arrested 23 tribal farmers for attempted murder when tribal members “forcefully tried to recover farmland that the villagers have been cultivating for decades.” Tribal leaders criticized the arrests as “persecution” for defending their rights.
Local media reported that Indigenous tribes clashed with Telangana Forest Department officials and that police on at least two separate occasions in Telangana regarding the right to cultivate forest lands. On July 6, local tribes and police clashed in Khammam district as forest officials prevented Indigenous farmers from tilling podu lands, defined as the lands burned and cleared of vegetation for agriculture. On July 9, police arrested five tribal women in Mancherial district on the charge of attacking police with chili powder. The clash began after forest officials allegedly removed four huts from podu lands a few days prior. The forest officials defended their action on the grounds that they were preventing deforestation.
On May 3, two tribal victims died after a mob assaulted them because they were accused of cow slaughter in Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni district. Police arrested 13 individuals, while the government awarded a compensation of 825,000 INR ($9,900) to the families of each of the deceased victims.
Children
Birth Registration: The law establishes state government procedures for birth registration, which are done without discrimination. Analysis of government data from 2015-16 noted approximately 62 percent of children younger than five had their births registered and their parent or parents received a birth certificate.
Children lacking citizenship or registration may not be able to access public services, enroll in school, or obtain identification documents later in life.
Education: The constitution provides for free education for all children from ages six to 14, with a compulsory education age through age 15, but the government did not always comply with this requirement. Since the minimum age for work is lower than the compulsory education age, children may be encouraged to leave school before the completion of compulsory education.
Child Abuse: The law prohibits child abuse, but it does not recognize physical abuse by caregivers, neglect, or psychological abuse as punishable offenses. The Crime in India Report 2021 showed 53,874 cases of child sexual abuse were registered in 2021 under POCSO. According to the report, 5,079 persons were convicted and 10,099 acquitted. In January, the Delhi High Court held an accused individual could be convicted of child abuse even in the absence of forensic evidence, a judgment that acknowledges the lack of evidence in sexual abuse cases and the problems in recording and maintaining evidence. In July, the Central Bureau of Investigation joined Interpol’s international child sexual exploitation database, aiming to facilitate cross-referencing of victims, abusers, and crime scenes using audiovisual data.
On March 18, a retired headmaster in Thiurvallur, Tamil Nadu, age 102, was sentenced to 15 years in jail (including 10 years of rigorous imprisonment) and fined 5,000 rupees ($60) for sexually assaulting an elementary school girl in 2018.
Child, Early, and Forced Marriage: The law sets the legal age of marriage for women at 18 and men at 21, and it empowers courts to annul early and forced marriages. Authorities did not consistently enforce the law or address the practice of rape survivors being forced into marriage. According to NCRB data, 1,062 cases were registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2021, which is a significant increase from 792 cases in 2020. Additionally, National Family Health Survey-5 (NHFS-5) data indicate the rate of child marriage has decreased to 23 percent of women, compared to 27 percent of women in the prior NFHS.
The law does not characterize a marriage between a girl younger than 18 and a boy younger than 21 as illegal but recognizes such unions as voidable. The law also sets penalties for persons who perform, arrange, or participate in child marriages. The law establishes a full-time child marriage prohibition officer in every state to prevent child marriage. These individuals have the power to intervene when a child marriage is taking place, document violations of the law, file charges against parents, remove children from dangerous situations, and deliver them to local child protection authorities.
Financial distress, parental deaths, and school closures put girls at risk of child marriage. Officials reported that in most cases underage girls were forced to marry because of their family’s loss of earnings and financial distress. These factors were exacerbated by lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
On July 28, the Bihar government issued a directive holding village heads responsible for cases of child marriage reported from their villages.
Sexual Exploitation of Children: The law prohibits child pornography and sets the legal age of consent at 18, and the law was enforced effectively. It is illegal to pay for sex with a minor, to induce a minor into commercial sexual or any form of “illicit sexual intercourse,” or to sell or buy a minor for the purposes of commercial sex exploitation or child sex trafficking. Violators are subject to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine. The law also provides for at least one special court dedicated to sexual offenses against children (POCSO court) to be set up in each district, but implementation of this provision lagged.
NCRB data showed an increase of 16.2 percent in registered cases in crimes against children. NCRB additionally shows that 38 percent of those cases against children were registered under POCSO. The highest number victims under POCSO were children between ages 16 to 18. Some NGOs noted several adolescent boys entered the juvenile justice system having been charged with rape because of the changes in the law.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development formally launched the Mission Vatsalya program (the erstwhile Child Protection Services program) to support the welfare of children, including those in Child Care Institutions (CCIs). Mission Vatsalaya is a roadmap to effectively implement the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (‘JJ Act’) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (‘POCSO Act’). It provides updated guidelines for the functioning of bodies under these legislations. The program also provides an updated budget sharing allocation between the central government and the states. On April 25, the Supreme Court directed state governments and union territories to implement standard operating procedures for the care and protection of children on the street for rescue and rehabilitation.
On March 13, the Ministry of Women and Child Development published new rules to protect children from sexual offenses. The rules provide for immediate compensation, increased public awareness regarding services from the CHILDLINE India Foundation, and legal aid assistance. The rules advise state governments to enact a child protection policy to reinforce the prohibition of violence against children. A new provision also directs immediate financial help to victims of child sexual abuse by the Child Welfare Committees. NGOs noted the procedure was not being implemented in a standardized fashion across jurisdictions.
Displaced Children: Displaced children, including refugees, IDPs, and street children, faced restrictions on access to government services (see also section 2.d.).
Institutionalized Children: The law defines a “child in need of care and protection.” A provision of the law requires care and protection for a child who is mentally ill, mentally or physically challenged, or suffering from a terminal or incurable disease. The Child Welfare Committee decides if the child has anyone to look after them or if their parents or guardians are unfit to take care of them. By law, once a child in need of care and protection is identified by police, an NGO, or an individual, the child appears before a committee. Depending on the committee’s decision, the child may be placed in institutional care. Children may be placed in a facility identified by the District Child Protection Unit.
Child welfare experts said that children with disabilities were often placed in the same shelter home where children without special needs were placed, causing a burden on shelter home staff to offer specialized services for disabled children while also providing care for children without disabilities. Experts suggested the situation was more difficult in rural districts, which did not have many provisions to place children with disabilities in special homes. This sometimes led to a child being sent to distant areas within a state.
A lack of safeguards encouraged an atmosphere of impunity in some group homes and orphanages. In January the management of a foster care home for children in New Delhi reported the rape of a girl, age 16, with mental disabilities. The incident came to light after the girl reported pain in her abdomen and a subsequent medical examination confirmed she was pregnant. The girl, who had been living at the home since 2019, was allegedly raped by the home’s security guard. Police arrested the guard after the girl gave a statement.
Antisemitism
Jewish groups from the 4,650-member Jewish community cited no reports of antisemitic acts during the year.
Trafficking in Persons
See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/.
Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics
Criminalization: The Supreme Court decriminalized same-sex relationships in 2018. In June, the Madras High Court recommended awareness training for government officials and police in addition to ordering state and union governments to develop plans for reforms that protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons. The court recommended separate housing for gender-nonconforming and transgender persons in prison, revocation of licenses from doctors who claim “cures” for homosexuality, and gender-neutral bathrooms at school and colleges as areas for reform.
Violence against LGBTQI+ Persons: Some police officers committed crimes against LGBTQI+ persons and used the threat of arrest to coerce victims not to report the incidents. With the aid of NGOs, several states offered education and sensitivity training to police. On April 12, the Women Safety Wing of the Telangana Police launched “Pride Place,” an LGBTQI+ persons protections unit with dedicated staff including a transgender coordinator. Experts acknowledged a disconnect between court action and state action to create an enabling environment for queer persons. Experts noted some law enforcement officials tended to side with family interests against the queer community. In Ghaziabad, a police constable slapped a lesbian couple while detaining them after a missing persons complaint was filed by their families.
NGO activists reported discrimination and violence including physical attacks and rape against members of the LGBTQI+ community.
Discrimination: The law prohibits discrimination by state and nonstate actors based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics. The government was inconsistent in enforcing these laws. The Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act seeks to ensure the rights of transgender or third gender persons, who may also be members of the Hijra community, are safeguarded from discrimination, but LGBTQI+ civil society reported problems with implementation as well as a need for legislation that provides for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and intersex persons. In June, the Tamil Nadu government issued an order for a prescriptive glossary of Tamil terms to address the LGBTQI+ community in a dignified way in public forums to help combat discrimination.
LGBTQI+ groups reported they experienced pervasive societal discrimination and violence, particularly in rural areas. Public support for same-sex couples being able to marry continues to rise. A July survey found that 42 percent of respondents supported equal marriage, opposed to 50 percent disapproval. There is no pathway for same-sex couples to legally marry, but litigation to legalize equal marriage was being considered by the Supreme Court.
Activists reported transgender persons continued to face difficulty obtaining medical treatment. To combat this, in February the Telangana High Court ordered the Telangana state government to establish facilities in all the 33 districts for COVID-19 vaccination of members of LGBTQI+ community. On August 2, the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Telangana opened a dedicated clinic for the LGBTQI+ community. The state opened two exclusive clinics in Hyderabad in 2021. On August 11, Andhra Pradesh AIDS Control Society started a one-stop medical facility for transgender persons in Tirupathi.
On April 7, a lesbian couple sought legal recognition and police protection with a court in Pune, Maharashtra. The couple faced a police investigation after the parents of one woman accused her partner of subjecting their daughter to force, fraud, and coercion.
Availability of Legal Gender Recognition: The law recognizes the right of any citizen, irrespective of caste and creed, to change their gender identity, access government identity documentation, employment opportunities, gender-affirming health care, and other services based on the principle of self-determination. Every instance where someone changes their gender must be officially presented as a notification in the weekly gazette, published by the government’s Department of Publication, to be legally valid.
To change one’s gender to a third gender, the 2019 Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act has two ways to change gender. The first is for a person wanting their identification as a “transgender” person (T) to make an application to the District Magistrate with an affidavit; it is not necessary to provide a medical history. The magistrate cannot insist on medical or physical examination. The second is for an individual to first get a certificate with (T) and then apply to the magistrate again for a change in gender to (M) or (F). The second type of application requires proof of surgery ((for (T) to (M/F)) or any “medical intervention,” which could include counseling, hormone therapy, and surgical intervention.
Involuntary or Coercive Medical or Psychological Practices Specifically Targeting LGBTQI+ Individuals: The law makes it illegal to treat adults without their express consent or that of a nominated representative in case they cannot give informed consent. The law also prohibits mental health professions from prescribing medicines or performing treatments “not authorized by the field” of their profession. In 2018, the Indian Psychiatric Society stated that homosexuality was not a disease and that all forms of “treatment/therapy,” including individual psychotherapy, behavior therapies such as aversive conditioning, hypnotherapy, group therapy, pharmacotherapy, physical treatment methods, or milieu treatments to reverse sexual orientation were based on an erroneous premise that such orientations are diseases. Most recently, in September, the National Medical Commission instructed all state medical councils to ban so-called conversion therapy and called it “professional misconduct.”
Restrictions of Freedom of Expression, Association, or Peaceful Assembly: There were no reports of restrictions on speaking out regarding LGBTQI+ issues or on the ability to legally register or convene related events.
Persons with Disabilities
The constitution does not explicitly mention disability. The law provides equal rights for persons with a variety of disabilities, including persons with Parkinson’s disease and acid attack survivors. The law requires the government to provide persons with disabilities with equal access to physical infrastructure and public transportation systems. The law states the government should take necessary measures for persons with disabilities to provide barrier-free access in government, private hospitals, and health-care institutions. The law further states the government shall take measures to provide: (1) facilities for persons with disabilities at bus stops, railway stations, and airports conforming to the accessibility standards relating to parking spaces, toilets, ticketing counters, and ticketing machines; (2) access to all modes of transport that conform with design standards, including retrofitting old modes of transport wherever technically feasible and safe for persons with disabilities, economically viable, and without entailing major structural changes in design; and (3) accessible roads to address mobility necessary for persons with disabilities.
The law states the appropriate government and local authorities shall endeavor that all educational institutions provide inclusive education to children with disabilities. Institutions should admit them without discrimination and provide education and opportunities for sports and recreation activities equally with others; making buildings, campuses, and facilities accessible; and providing reasonable accommodation according to the individual’s requirement. According to the law, the government shall take measures to promote, protect, and ensure participation of persons with disabilities in adult education and continuing education programs equally with others.
On March 22, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhoumik told the lower house of parliament that while targets originally set under the government’s flagship Accessible India Campaign had not been revised, “the deadlines have been revised.” According to media reports, the ministry attributed the revised deadlines to slow progress by implementing agencies and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on site activities. The campaign aims to make government buildings, websites, and transport systems accessible to the differently abled. On August 2, Bhoumik said that as of August, nine central ministries and 29 states and union territories had uploaded data related to 1,768 buildings being made accessible as part of the nationwide campaign to achieve universal accessibility.
Persons with disabilities faced discrimination in employment and occupation.
Other Societal Violence or Discrimination
State governments continued to pass laws related to forced religious conversion for the purpose of marriage. These laws seek to make forced religious conversion by marriage a criminal offense. Supporters of the laws sometimes characterized them as preventing “love jihad” or Muslim men attempting to marry Hindu women for the purposes of religious conversion. Civil society groups criticized the laws as violating constitutional protections on freedom of religion, but some survey data suggested religious minority communities themselves sometimes expressed support for anticonversion measures.
Police reported several arrests of mostly Muslim men for violation of an anticonversion law passed in Uttar Pradesh in February. In 2021, the Allahabad High Court underscored the right of interfaith couples to marry without the approval of district officials in contravention to Uttar Pradesh’s anticonversion law and ordered district police to provide protection to 17 interfaith couples.
In December 2021 the Jharkhand State Legislative Assembly passed the Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021. Jharkhand was the fourth state after Manipur, Rajasthan, and West Bengal to pass such a law. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam, without specifying the dates, told the assembly that 53 incidents of mob lynching took place in Jharkhand, resulting in 33 persons being killed. According to a report by the Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch, a conglomeration of rights bodies, more than 30 tribal Christians and Muslims had either been lynched or beaten up on suspicion of cow slaughter, sale and consumption of beef, and religious hatred between 2016 and 2021.
On January 29, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed local police in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, to protect and reunite a Hindu wife with her Muslim husband whom she married voluntarily. Madhya Pradesh police had separated the couple after the bride’s Hindu family expressed disapproval of the interfaith marriage and pressed charges against the Muslim man under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021.
On April 8, following opposition from Madhya Pradesh State Minister Om Prakash Dhurve to an interfaith marriage, Dindori district officials demolished the residence of a Muslim man who married a Hindu woman. On April 7, the officials demolished three shops belonging to the Muslim man’s family, claiming they were illegal constructions. On April 25, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed police to protect the interfaith couple.
On April 10, Vinod Chavda was killed during communal violence that occurred in Gujarat’s Khambhat town after celebratory processions for the Hindu Ram Navmi holiday moved through a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. In response, police arrested 40 individuals, and government authorities bulldozed Muslim-owned properties in Khambhat, citing them as illegal structures.
On April 17, Irbaish Khan’s body was recovered after he was reported missing during the April 10 communal violence over Ram Navmi celebratory processions in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone town. In response to the communal violence, Madhya Pradesh police arrested 148 individuals. The Madhya Pradesh government invoked the 2021 Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property and Recovery of Damage Act to bulldoze 16 homes and 29 shops largely owned by Muslims accused of inciting violence.
On June 21, chemist Umesh Kolhe was killed in Maharashtra’s Amravati city after he shared a social media post that supported suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s remarks criticizing the Prophet Mohammed. The NIA took over the investigations from the local police and arrested nine men.
On August 2, a mob beat a Muslim man to death and injured two others in Madhya Pradesh after allegations of cow smuggling. The two men were transporting Cows to a cattle market to sell. Madhya Pradesh police filed a complaint against 12 individuals for the attack and a separate complaint against the two survivors for illegally transporting the cows, a charge which the victims denied.