The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026: What can State Governments Do?

Pragya is a Senior Resident Fellow at Vidhi, where she has worked for four years in the area of Legal Design and Regulation. Prior to this, she was a Legal Assistant at the Law and Legislative Department, Government of Chhattisgarh, focusing on regulatory compliance and drafting of State rules and statutes, along with policy research and government contracts. Pragya holds a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) from Hidayatullah National Law University (2018) and an LL.M. in Constitutional Law from National Law University Odisha (2020). Her research interests include regulatory design, post-colonial feminist studies, and trade law. She is an avid reader with a love for dystopian and fantasy literature.

Namrata is a Senior Resident Fellow in the Legal Design and Regulation Vertical at Vidhi. She primarily handles engaged and commissioned projects from various ministries, statutory authorities and regulators by providing legal research and legislative drafting support. At Vidhi, she has worked with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Department of Consumer Affairs. Namrata also works extensively on queer rights and has initiated and worked on numerous projects on rights of gender and sexual minorities. She has written for the Hindu, the Firstpost, the Economic Times, the Leaflet, Article 14, Indian Express and Varta GenSex Policy Matters. Prior to Vidhi, Namrata taught at the Jindal Global Law School and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (‘NUJS’), worked with the Migration and Asylum Project on labour laws and policy, the Centre for Popular Democracy in New York City, and the Public Law and Vidhi Aid verticals at Vidhi. She has a BA/LLB from NUJS and a LLM from Columbia Law which she attended in the capacity of a Human Rights Fellow

Jwalika is a Research Fellow in the Research Director's Office at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, Delhi. She holds a Bachelor of Civil Law (LLM-equivalent) degree from the University of Oxford and a BA LLB (Hons) from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Her areas of interest include family law, equality and anti-discrimination law, and human rights, with a special emphasis on gender and sexuality. She is on the Board of Directors at OutLawed India, a not-for-profit organisation working to improve access to law and justice. At Vidhi, she has been providing legislative drafting assistance to various Ministries, Departments, and Authorities of the Central Government and various State Governments.

Kartavi is a Senior Resident Fellow working with the Legal Design and Regulation Team. She completed her B.Sc. LLB (Intellectual Property Hons.) from National Law University Jodhpur in 2018 and obtained her LLM degree from National University of Singapore in 2022. Prior to joining Vidhi, she also worked as a Legal Researcher at the Delhi High Court where she worked on matters ranging from service law and IPR disputes to constitutional law. Her research interests lie in the areas of access to justice, technology policy and digital divide, climate change policy and education. Kartavi also enjoys theatre, cinema and asian literature.

Kahaan is a Senior Resident Fellow in the Applied Law and Technology Research Team at Vidhi. His experience in the technology law and policy space is diverse, spanning academia, strategic litigation, and advocacy. Previously, he has worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington D.C.), the Software Freedom Law Center, India (SFLC.in), and at the Daksha Fellowship. His work has focused on areas such as internet shutdowns, technological due process, digital free speech, privacy, and AI governance. He has worked on reports on different subjects at the intersection of law and technology commissioned by the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (UK FCDO), the European Commission (EC), among others. His work often incorporates an interdisciplinary perspective, specifically from the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), system design principles, and philosophy of technology. He graduated from Symbiosis Law School, Pune in 2021 with an LL.B., and secured his LL.M. in Technology Law and Policy from the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington D.C. in 2024.

Palomi Chaturvedi joined the Research Director’s Office at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy after graduating from Jindal Global Law School in 2025. Her academic and research interests cover arbitration, jurisprudence and tax law, as well as rigorous ethical inquiry to inform public policy and social outcomes. She believes in applying evidence-based approaches to guide impactful legal reforms and social change; her approach to ethics draws on consequentialist ideas. Beyond her professional interests, She is an avid strength trainer who enjoys outdoor activities like trekking, alongside a fascination for psychological and horror cinema.