The Centre constituted a six-member committee to examine various issues relating to the queer community on Tuesday. The move comes months after the Supreme Court refused to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages asserting the matter should be dealt by the Parliament. The government cited, while forming the panel, cited a directive given by SC in the last year.

On October 17, 2023, the apex court directed the Centre to constitute a committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary to examine the issues related to the queer community. 

The panel will be headed by the Cabinet secretary. The Secretary, Department of Home, Secretary of Ministry of Women and Child Development, Secretary of Department of Health and Family Welfare, Secretary of Legislative Department and Secretary of Department of Social Justice and Empowerment are among other members of the committee.

LGBTQI, disabled persons feature in below 1 per cent of campaigns in India

Meanwhile, a report by the industry's self-regulatory body ASCI and a UN body highlighted on Tuesday that the cultural diversity is missing from the country's advertising.

The report said that less than one per cent of promotional campaigns feature persons belonging to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community as well as disabled, while only 4 per cent campaigns show people aged above 65.

The study by Kantar on behalf of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and UN Women Convened Unstereotype Alliance scrutinised over 261 ads in 13 languages, and mapped them on dimensions of age, gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, physical appearance, social class, disabilities, and religion.

Only 3 per cent of Indian ads had representation from ethnic groups as against the global average of 19 per cent, while only 4 per cent showed diversity of skin tone as against the global average of 27 per cent, the report said.