SRINAGAR: The Government of India has told Parliament that only one transgender person has been accommodated under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in Jammu and Kashmir since the scheme’s inception, highlighting the limited reach of the flagship housing programme among the transgender community in the Union Territory.
In a written reply to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha on December 15, 2025, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said that Jammu and Kashmir recorded zero transgender beneficiaries year after year between 2020–21 and 2025–26, with the cumulative figure since inception standing at just one. No transgender beneficiary has been reported under PMAY in Jammu and Kashmir during the last five financial years covered in the data placed before Parliament.
The reply came in response to a question on the inclusion of transgender persons under PMAY and the steps taken to remove barriers faced by the community in accessing housing benefits. The ministry reiterated that PMAY-U and its successor, PMAY-U 2.0, are demand-driven schemes, where identification and selection of beneficiaries are carried out by States and Union Territories.
The ministry said that as per scheme guidelines, transgender persons are listed among the priority categories, alongside widows, single women, persons with disabilities, senior citizens, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities. However, it maintained that implementation depends on project proposals and beneficiary lists submitted by States and Union Territories.
Nationally, the government reported that 809 transgender beneficiaries have been covered under PMAY-U and PMAY-U 2.0 since inception, with most allocations concentrated in a few States. Tamil Nadu alone accounts for 222 beneficiaries cumulatively, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 186 and Odisha with 101. In contrast, several States and Union Territories, including Jammu and Kashmir, have either negligible or no reported coverage.
The ministry also said that no specific survey has been conducted to assess barriers faced by transgender communities in accessing PMAY benefits. Instead, it said learnings from earlier implementation phases have informed the design of PMAY-U 2.0, which was launched on September 1, 2024, to support one crore additional urban beneficiaries over the next five years.
For Ladakh, the parliamentary reply shows an even starker picture. The Union Territory has not reported a single transgender beneficiary under PMAY either during the last five years or cumulatively since the scheme began. Ladakh figures show zero coverage across all financial years listed in the annexure.
As of November 24, 2025, the Centre said it has sanctioned over 122.06 lakh houses nationally under PMAY-U and PMAY-U 2.0, with more than 96 lakh houses completed and delivered. However, the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh data suggest that housing inclusion for transgender persons remains largely unaddressed on the ground, despite their formal recognition as a priority group in scheme guidelines.
