New Delhi, April 2 -- The Centre on Wednesday defended the proposed changes to the definition of transgender persons under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026 but said that the new law was not meant to restrict gender affirmative care. The act amended the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. In a response to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member Tiruchi Siva, Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment BL Verma said, "The rationale for removing the self-identification aspect from the definition of transgender persons is to ensure that the definition. becomes precise and enables identification of the specific class of transgender persons facing severe social exclusion, so that the ben...