The employment of 23 transgender community at Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) is a significant symbol of the modernity of Kerala's outlook as a State, with the visible third sex presence in the public utility sending an important message to society at large, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said.
He was delivering the inaugural address at a University Grants Commission (UGC)-sponsored seminar on ‘Gender status and gender justice: Contemporary circumstances and challenges,’ organised by the Malayalam department of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit’s (SSUS), Thiruvananthapuram regional centre, here on Tuesday.
Although there was more to be done for the welfare of the transgenders employed by the Kochi metro such as the provision of accommodation, it had still set an important precedent that could open up more avenues for employment of the community, Dr. Isaac said.
The Minister himself made an employment offer to them, saying that trans-people would be given preference while hiring to a coir mill initiative that was being planned to be launched under the aegis of Kudumbasree.
Apart from employment, education and social security of trans-people were important concerns that needed to be addressed, he said, adding that residential complexes for the community in each district could also be constructed.
Transgender poet and activist Vijayaraja Mallika said that it was not shelters or rehabilitation homes that trans-people sought, but the ability to stay at their own homes in peace.
This was only possible through a fundamental change in society’s outlook towards them, she said.
She welcomed the LDF-led government's initiatives to bring the marginalised transgender community to the mainstream, saying that she was proud to live in Kerala, where many doors were now open for them, unlike in the past.
Chintha Jerome, chairperson of the Kerala State Youth Commission (KSYC), LGBT activist Jijo Kuriakose, journalist M.S. Sreekala, and SSUS campus director A. Paslithil were present at the event, organised in association with the KSYC.