On Saturday, Asma, Sreelachu, Keerthi, and Sakeena went door-to-door in the Sreevarahom and Kuriyathi areas for a survey as part of the Aksharasree literacy project.
Belonging to the transgender community that is very marginalised, the four know how much education and access to it matter. All four are learners under the Kerala State Literacy Mission’s Samanwaya transgender continuing project.
As many as 23 transgenders in all became part of the Aksharsree survey exercise. Ten of them are Class X equivalency learners and 11 higher secondary equivalency learners. They will help with in the survey and in the consolidation of results. Asma and Sreelachu said they had apprehensions of how they would be received when asking people for their details, but found everyone very forthcoming. “We were treated no different from other volunteers.” Sreelachu said that at a house in Manacaud, a family member said they knew quite a lot about transgenders from news reports.
For Keerthi and Sakeena too, it was a pleasant experience. “In one house, they got up from having their meal to invite us inside.”
Asma and Lachu said people in the city were becoming increasingly familiar with transgenders, but only during an exercise in rural areas would they really come to know about people’s response to them and their awareness of transgenders.
All four of them attend the literacy mission’s class at the Manacaud girls’ school every second Saturday of the month.
