Transgenders are always looked down upon in India. They are still considered a curse at their birth Tiruchirapalli or Trichy district in Tamil Nadu was no different than other parts of India. They were refused a place for rent or get into any other occupation. That is why they were unable to climb up the social ladder.
However, the District Collector of Trichy, Mr. M Pradeep Kumar, IAS, acknowledged the issue and took a noble step of providing a group of transgenders a livelihood training programme on food processing. He has now started a Trans-Kitchen which is a first step of opening many doors for this discriminated community in Trichy.
TRAINING
While speaking with Indian Masterminds, IAS officer Pradeep Kumar said, “This initiative has been taken to break the social stigma in the district and to provide an independent earning and livelihood to these transgenders. We selected a group of transgenders who were interested and started training programme last month.”
The programme was conducted under the Micro Enterprise Development Programme (MEDP), which is sponsored by the NABARD. Alongside NABARD, the Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation Institute-Trichy Agri-Business Incubation Forum came in collaboration to train a total of 30 transgenders in the district. The training programme was 15-days-long and was concluded on 28 June.
PROVIDING LIVELIHOOD
After the training programme, the Collector started the initiative of setting up a Trans-Kitchen which will be fully operated by them. The Collector said, “They will be making mostly Indian and Chinese cuisine and will be serving it to common people as both these cuisines are widely accepted by the people.”
The Collector, on completion of the training programme, inaugurated the first ever transgender kitchen in the district and also distributed their training certificates. Addressing the event, Mr. Pradeep emphasised on social acceptance and economic upliftment of the transgenders as the two major forces. As some of them are PHD holder, he also insisted on the importance of education in social inclusiveness and assured all sorts of assistance from the administration.
Earlier, some of the transgenders were in different occupations which they were forced into. “However,” the officer said, “now many transgenders from the district are coming up and insisting on getting enrolled in similar training programmes. We’ll have a training module which will not only include only food processing training but also for other occupations like common sewing centre, meat shop, and credit support for rearing milch animals, etc.
To break the social stigma, the Collector has also given one stall to the community in the Collectorate where they will be selling small stationery items etc. Not only this, but with the issue of not getting space for starting an enterprise the district administration has started arranging loans and subsidies to these transgenders.
Apart from that, the administration has also planned a separate colony for members of this community where Patta (lease) land will be given to them free of cost.
