“More than your help, we seek your acceptance”. With this appeal to society, scores of transgenders from various parts of The Nilgiris and neighbouring places participated in a workshop titled ‘Open Up Your Mind’, organised by the Lions Club of Ooty Crown in association with The Power of Youth Hands Trust here on Wednesday.
Attitudinal changeLamenting that many of them were forced to seek alms or join flesh trade for no fault of theirs, some of the transgenders including Dhanalakshmi and Pinky Velayudham said, while addressing the gathering, that the need of the hour was an attitudinal change among people.
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Pointing out that most of them were well educated, artistic and skilled, they said that they displayed a great deal of involvement in carrying out tasks assigned to them.
Regrettably, they were not being offered jobs on account of the stigma the society had attached to them. With their parents first marginalising them, others followed suit. Consequently, they were pushed to the brink.
Governor, Lions District 324B1, Arumugam Mani, who inaugurated the workshop in which social activists and students participated, said that in being humane, transgenders showed the way to the other two genders.
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Founder, The Power of Youth Hands Trust, Anjali pointed out that there were about 1,500 transgenders in Coimbatore and around 300 in The Nilgiris.
TransformationIf society accepted them, a transformation could be brought about in their lives, she added.
Social activist Solomon Roy urged students to play a lead role in bringing about a change in attitude towards transgenders.
Secretary, Lions Club of Ooty Crown, D.Chandrakumar Galada said that the opening of restaurants run exclusively by transgenders in Coimbatore and The Nilgiris was in the offing.
Club president Subramani Srikandan presided.
The transgenders taking a pledge to donate organs marked the occasion.