As many as 42 aspirants of the transgender community in Assam are all set to appear for the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) civil services examination.
In a first, APSC had introduced ‘transgender’ as a gender category in its civil service examination application form from this year.
The aspirants have filled up forms to appear in the Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination, 2020, conducted by the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) for recruitment to the posts of ACS junior grade and other allied services.
APSC on September 15 included transgender as a category of gender in the application form of the examination.
As per the 2011 census, Assam has a transgender population of 11,374 with 53.69 per cent literacy rate.
Appreciating the step taken by the state commission, transgender activist Swati Bidhan Baruah said: “It is a very good news and a welcome development. The APSC is the first state public service commission in the country to introduce transgender as a gender category in its application form.”
Earlier, the Assam government had formed a six-member transgender welfare board through a notification on June 17. The members from the state’s transgender community were incorporated into the welfare board.
