Special education programme launched for Kerala transgender community

The state is the first in the country to unveil the Transgender Policy which aims to put a stopper on societal stigma towards the minority community.

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The literacy programme will most likely be launched in April.

The Kerala government has initiated a special education programme for the transgender community in the state. A 10-day long survey, under an education programme by the Literacy Mission, was launched across the state on Tuesday to note the transgender head count.

This is part of the state’s efforts to bring the transgender community to the forefront of the society and provide them with equal opportunities. The state is the first in the country to unveil the Transgender Policy which aims to put a stopper on societal stigma towards this minority community and promise justice and non-discriminatory treatment.

“The Literacy Mission already has its equivalency course and other programmes. We are planning to bring the TGs under this programme. As an initial step, we have launched a state-wide TG survey. With its completion, we will get a clear picture about the total number of people belonging to the minority group in each district,” P S Sreekala, director of the state Literacy Mission, said.

Read | India’s first transgender school opens in Kerala

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The survey is a first of its kind venture to be carried out for a minority group. The literacy programme will most likely be launched in April after the survey has been completed. Civic authorities and continuing education centres will aid in conducting classes for the transgender students in each district.

Sreekala said that the Mission also aims to bring other marginalised sections, like migrant workers, into the fold of the continuing education programme.

C Raveendranath, state Education Minister, said that the main objective of the programme is to create a society without marginalised sections and the state has been working on some transgender-friendly initiatives to make this happen.

This includes the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd’s extension of job offers to the transgender community in the fields of housekeeping, customer relations and crowd management. Kudumbashree, the state’s poverty eradication mission, has formed a transgender neighbourhood to empower them and the Central Library has offered membership to transgender activist Sheethal Shyam

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Kerala’s Transgender policy came into force in 2015 to gain transgenders their constitutional rights with to the 2014 Supreme Court judgement. Transgenders also get equal access to social and economic opportunities, right to equal treatment under the law, right to resources and services, right to live a violence-free life and equitable right in all decision making bodies under the policy.

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