Kathmandu(Pahichan) August 28 – Santa Bahadur Pun, 47, from Rupandehi district, has received passport under ‘O’ category. He is the second transgender to receive such passport. Earlier, Manoj Sahi, a resident of Kailai district, received passport under ‘O’ category becoming first to receive passport. There is ‘O’ category in the citizenship of Sahi. However, in Pun’s citizenship Male is mentioned. In the voter list, Pun has been identified as transgender.

Earlier, District Administration Office Rupandehi refused to correct his gender. Later, Pun presented a medical certificate and District Administration Office recommended him as a transgender. He received passport on the basis of recommendation made by VDC, Municipality, Lumbini Zonal Hospital and work experience letter of Blue Diamond Society. “I faced a lot of hassles to receive passport, not only from society, I faced discrimination by government officials.”I was made naked when I went to receive medical report about my gender identity,” Pun said, “I told doctors that I was born as a boy and I like man, therefore I am a transgender.”  Government officials lack the knowledge regarding the transgender.

Chairman of Blue Diamond Society Pinki Gurung deplored the District Administration Office for seeking the medical report. “Doctor is not an authority to prove my gender and sexual minority,” Gurung said it is objectionable to make naked. We knocked the door of Supreme Court after District Administration Office Rupandehi sought medical report to provide citizenship. “It is a great injustice to us that report has been provided as inter-sex. Doctor Rajendra Prasad Khanal provided such report.

On the basis of medical report, the administration has recommended that Pun is a transgender. World Health Organization in 1990 has made it clear that homosexuals and transgender are not diseases. “Male and female do not required to present medical report so why they seek report from us, it is a great injustice to us,” Gurung said. Before Supreme Court Order in 2008 and directives, issued by Ministry of Home Affairs, Pun has received citizenship.