Why in the news?

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) recently published a document titled “Inclusion of LGBTIQ+ People in the Workplace.” It makes guidelines to ensure equitable opportunity and treatment for LGBTIQ+ employees.
• LGBTIQ is an acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer.
• The plus sign represents persons who identify with different SOGIESC and use different labels. In some cases, the terms LGB, LGBT, or LGBTI refer to specific populations.
• SOGIESC is an acronym that stands for sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics.

What exactly is the International Labour Organization (ILO)?

• It is the only United Nations (UN) organisation with three components. It brings together governments, companies, and employees from 187 member countries (India is one of them) to define labour standards, develop laws, and design programmes to promote decent work for all women and men.
• In 1969, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• The Treaty of Versailles established the League of Nations as an associated institution in 1919.
• In 1946, it became the UN’s first linked specialised agency.
• Geneva, Switzerland is the headquarters.

What are the suggestions?

Review of National Policy and Labor Law:

• A review of national policy and labour laws will enable governments to analyse their country’s work policy environment for LGBTIQ+ people.
• This will allow tangible initiatives to be identified for strengthening the legal and policy environment, reducing discrimination and exclusion, and complying with international treaties.
• LGBTIQ+ people experience harassment, violence, and discrimination around the world because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics.
• Discrimination costs businesses and national economies money, not only LGBTIQ+ people and their families.

Launch Social Protection Programs:

 It urged member countries, employers’ organisations, and labour leaders to implement social protection programmes to reduce barriers that LGBTIQ+ people confront in society.

Facilitate Consultation:

• Consultation with LGBTIQ+ groups is essential in addition to social engagement with employers’ and workers’ organisations.
• This will allow the identification of impediments that LGBTIQ+ people confront while joining the labour market and receiving government programmes, such as social protection.

Working with Small and Medium Industry Associations:

In order to combat gender and sexual identity discrimination and stigma, the International Labor Organization encouraged governments to collaborate with small and medium-sized industry associations, sectoral unions, and informal economy workers’ associations.

End Sexual Discrimination in the Workplace:

• It makes business sense to focus on LGBTIQ+ inclusion in the workplace while encouraging employers’ organisations to end sexual discrimination in the workplace.
• According to studies, workplace diversity, including LGBTIQ+ individuals, is beneficial to company.
• It denotes a creative environment that fosters the necessary circumstances for economic progress.
• Employers’ organisations can provide policy direction to their members, advocate for and create awareness about include LGBTIQ+ people in the workplace, foster social discourse and collective bargaining, and support members’ learning and sharing of best practises.

Organize and Exercise the Right to Association:

• The ILO has requested unions to assist LGBTIQ+ employees in organising and exercising their right to association.
• Workers’ groups can also ensure that LGBTIQ+ problems are addressed in collective bargaining agreements with employers, as well as workplace policies and other tools.
• Many LGBTIQ+ employees, particularly those in smaller organisations, may feel lonely in the absence of visible LGBTIQ+ peers or allies.

What is the current state of the LGBTIQ+ community in India?

National Legal Services Authority vs. Union of India (2014):

 The Supreme Court stated that “recognition of transgenders as a third gender is a human rights problem, not a social or medical matter.”

Navtej Singh Johar vs. Union of India (2018):

 The Supreme Court (SC) decriminalised homosexuality by striking down portions of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that were deemed to violate the LGBTQ Community’s Fundamental Rights.

• The Supreme Court ruled that Article 14 of the Constitution ensures equality before the law to all classes of citizens, restoring the LGBTQ community’s “inclusiveness.”
• It also affirmed the primacy of constitutional morality in India, stating that equality before the law cannot be denied by giving precedence to public or religious morality.
• According to the Supreme Court, the ‘Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Law in Relation to Issues of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity’ should be incorporated into Indian law.
• The Yogyakarta Principles recognise sexual orientation and gender identity as human rights.
• A respected group of International Human Rights experts defined them in 2006 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Tussle Over Same-Sex Marriages:

• In the case of Shafin Jahan v. Asokan K.M. and others (2018), the Supreme Court stated that choosing a partner is a fundamental right, and it can be a same-sex partner.
• However, the Central Government opposed same-sex marriage in the Delhi High Court in February 2021, arguing that a marriage in India can only be recognised if it is between a “biological man” and a “biological woman” capable of bearing children.

Act to Protect the Rights of Transgender People (2019):

• The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, was passed by Parliament, however it has been criticised for its lack of knowledge of gender and sexual identity.