Social Justice department unfriendly for transgenders?

Thiruvananthapuram: One would think that a transgender, working with the social justice department, has found  the ideal workplace. The experience of Pramod, who landed a daily wage job at the department’s old age home at Pulayanarkotta, makes one think otherwise. A male-to-female TG person, he was appointed as a multi-purpose caretaker. The officials here started to give him jobs, which according to him, required the stamina of a male. He was asked to plough the compound and carry heavy loads and also given charge of cleaning the toilets of the male inmates.

He is the state’s first TG person to have a job with a government department, according to Anil Arjunan, founder of the NGO, Chilla. It was regarded as justice delivered, even though delayed. For Pramod,  37,   was unemployed, despite a degree from IGNOU. He says, initially neither the inmates nor the officials could understand that he did not identify with  a male or female gender. Once he was locked in the bathroom by the inmates. The issue required intervention from higher authorities. “Now the inmates are more considerate,” Pramod says.

However, the officials have still not understood the concept of transgender person. Recently during  the Onam celebration, when he sought permission to wear saris, he was not allowed to. Though he still has not found friends here, he is hopeful that the contract gets extended by another year. He is hopeful that his workplace will turn friendly to TGs with time.