Lucknow: Any transgender, who has a transgender card, is eligible for Ayush card, a cashless medical insurance worth Rs 5 lakh, social welfare minister Asim Arun said during the Question Hour on Thursday.
The ex-IPS was replying to a supplementary raised by Jakhai MLA from Samajwadi Party Engineer Sachin Yadav, who earned the praise of Speaker Satish Mahana and the minister himself for raising such a sensitive issue.
Arun claimed that this was probably the first in the past so many years that someone asked a question regarding the transgenders.
Yadav said there are around 1.37 lakh transgender but they are not getting medical insurance and demanded that they should be covered with an Ayushman card.
The minister said the transgenders are eligible for Ayushman card and added that until now only 1000 transgenders have got their transgender card made as per the Transgender Protection Act of the Union Government.
More transgenders need to be sensitized and made aware about the transgender card, which the department is doing through a call centre which has two transgenders to address the problems of the community.
The Speaker also praised the minister for giving a detailed and to the point reply to the supplementary.
Courtesy : TOI
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