State proactive in securing rights of transgender community: speakers
Discussion examines the rights of sexual minorities
(From left) G. Jayalakshmi, Deputy Director, TN Social Welfare Department; Mathew Beh, U.S. Political Counselor, Chennai; Kalki Subramaniam, Director, Sahodari Foundation, and Salma, Writer, at the panel discussion in Chennai on Friday. —Photo: S.R. Raghunathan
The Tamil Nadu government has been proactive in securing the rights of the transgender community in the State, making it the most progressive in terms of addressing the human rights issue of the marginalised community, speakers at a discussion organised jointly by the United States Consulate in Chennai, and Sahodari, said here on Friday.
Organised as a means of observing LGBT Pride Month in June, the discussion sought to examine the position of rights of sexual minorities.
Speaking on the occasion, G. Jayalakshmi, deputy director, Social Welfare Directorate, said a welfare board for transgenders' was constituted in September 2008. It was thanks to this board, that several welfare schemes of the government were able to reach the target group, she said. District and State-level screening committees were constituted to screen the transgenders to provide them with identification cards, and so far, 2892 ID cards have been distributed to people who have come forward to screen themselves.
All those with ID cards could avail themselves of government schemes and welfare measures. Ration cards had been provided to a total of 1,238 persons, and 133 group houses were allotted to the transgender community, as part of the government scheme. As many as 482 were given land documents and 585 persons were given health insurance cards.
Members of the community were also receiving Old Age Pension, Ms. Jayalakshmi added. Circulars had been sent to government hospitals instructing staff to provide treatment with courtesy to members of the transgender community.
Salma, writer, and former chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Board, said the first step towards securing human rights of the community was the most important one. Once that step was taken, it would be easy to take the movement forward. Providing ID cards to the transgender community was a very symbolic gesture, but it also invests them with the sense of possession they failed to get as a member of the sexual minority groups.
While it is possible to find solutions to the problems of the individual, it was essential that society's perspective should change in order that true inclusion is possible.
Kalki Subramaniam, the first trans-sexual participant from the country in the US International Visitor Leadership Program, and director of Sahodari, recounted her experiences during her visit, studying human rights advocacy in the US.
The suffering of the transgender community could be compared with the privations that the Afro-American community had undergone in the past to seek their position in society.
Mathew Beh, US Consulate's Political Counsellor, recalled the Stonewall Inn riots of 1969 when the gay community protested police action against them in New York, tracing the origins of the Pride month.
It was important to remember those who lived in the past and had a more difficult time living, even as one celebrated the achievements of the present day, he added.
Messages from U.S. President Barack Obama, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were played out.
No comments:
Post a Comment