This Republic Day turned out a day to remember for S. Tamil Selvi, a transgender from the remote Puliankannu village in Walajah taluk of Ranipet district, as she received the appointment order as women health volunteer at the Primary Health Care Centre (PHC) in her village with immediate effect. The gesture by the Collector, D. Bhaskara Pandian, comes a day after she pleaded with him to provide her a suitable job in the Health Department within the district after being jobless for months. She has been enrolled as a woman health volunteer under the Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam scheme, the DMK government’s programme to deliver essential healthcare at the doorstep of the people, in the district.
“The voluntary worker job at the PHC is a stop-gap measure for her. Paperwork is being done recommending her for middle-level health worker in the PHC to the DMS (Directorate of Medical Services) on compassionate grounds. Such inclusiveness will motivate other transgenders to excel in their life. In Ranipet district, we have around 200 transgenders,” Mr. Bhaskara Pandian, told The Hindu .
The 25-year-old Tamil Selvi became the first transperson to be admitted into a nursing programme in the State four years ago in 2018 after the SHRC directed the government to allot her a seat as a special case in the Diploma in Nursing course conducted by the Government Vellore Medical College for the academic year 2018-19. She completed her diploma course. Since then, she has been working as a health assistant in various hospitals and health centers as temporary staff.
In fact, during the second wave of the pandemic last year (2021), she worked in the COVID-19 ward in Ranipet district for more than two months. “It is my dream to become a staff nurse in a hospital. I pursued the nursing course with passion. The voluntary worker job at the PHC in my village is a stepping stone for me to become a staff nurse,” said Ms. Tamil Selvi.
Born in a poor family, Ms. Tamil Selvi lost her parents at an early age. She managed to study with the help of her relatives and well wishers in the government school at Walajah taluk securing 757 marks in her Plus Two board examinations nearly a decade ago in 2013. Later, she underwent a sex reassignment surgery in 2015 and decided to become a nurse. After repeated hurdles to enroll in the nursing course, she finally managed to secure a seat for the course at the Government Medical College Hospital in Vellore. In her new role as women health volunteer, she will screen those above 45 years of age and others with infirmities through routine door-to-door check-ups and detect non-communicable diseases that are also seen to cause sudden mortalities and impact the quality of life. Women public health workers, women health volunteers (WHVs), physiotherapists and nurses, who will provide healthcare at the doorstep, were being roped under the scheme.
She would also screen high blood pressure and diabetes and monthly medicines for the patients at the door-step.
