PIB TrackerA ration card for partners, a joint account, a nominee
The government set out a multi-ministry position on LGBTQAI+ rights: queer partners count as one household for ration cards, may open joint bank accounts and nominate each other — the administrative answer after the Supreme Court declined to recognise marriage.
What happened
- The government set out multi-ministry measures for LGBTQAI+ rights and inclusion.
- The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, as amended in 2026, is the framework; intersex persons are included.
- Queer partners are to be treated as part of the same household for ration cards.
- There is no restriction on queer persons opening a joint bank account.
- A partner may be nominated to receive the account balance on the account holder's death.
For Prelims
- Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019: amended 2026; includes intersex persons with congenital variations in the definition.
- Ration cards: DFPD advisory — partners in a queer relationship are one household.
- Banking: DFS advisory — joint accounts permitted and a queer partner may be a nominee.
- NALSA v. Union of India (2014): recognised the third gender and the right to self-identified gender.
- Navtej Singh Johar (2018): read down Section 377 to decriminalise consensual same-sex relations between adults.
- Supriyo v. Union of India (2023): declined to recognise same-sex marriage, leaving it to the legislature, and led to a Cabinet Secretary-led committee on entitlements.
- The route being used: recognition through administrative entitlement rather than family law.
For UPSC: A precise rights-and-entitlements card. Use it for the Supriyo aftermath and legislature-judiciary division of labour, the definition of family in welfare law, the Transgender Persons Act, and substantive versus formal equality.
What it is NOT: None of this recognises marriage or civil union — it extends specific entitlements administratively, which is the route the Supreme Court left open in 2023 after declining to read marriage into existing law.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS2.12 · GS1.6 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Where the law would not define a family, the ration card has quietly begun to.
Substantiation (data)
Advisories treating queer partners as one household for ration cards, permitting joint bank accounts and allowing nomination, under a Transgender Persons Act amended in 2026 to include intersex persons.
Exemplification
Nomination rights on a bank account decide who inherits a balance — a small provision that answers a very large question about who counts as next of kin.
Problematisation
Advisories are not enforceable rights: a State that ignores one leaves the couple with no remedy, and entitlement-by-circular can be withdrawn as easily as it was issued.
Way-forward
Convert the advisories into rules with a grievance route, and audit State-level ration card issuance for compliance.
Position
Recognition arrives in a democracy through many small doors before it arrives through the front one.
Deploys into: Welfare of vulnerable sections + Indian society (GS2.12, GS1.6) · the Supriyo aftermath, the definition of family in welfare law, and substantive versus formal equality.
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment · 2026-08-13 · PRID 2299174 · PIB source ↗