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No salary for 11 transgender guards since February; PMC Commissioner Navalkishore Ram promises swift action

The PMC had given contractual employment to 25 transgender persons through its contractors two years ago.

2 min readAug 2, 2025 06:42 PM IST

But one of the contractors who had onboarded 11 transgender workers has failed to clear their payment since February, said Zoya Shirole, Secretary, YUTAK Charitable Trust. (File Photo)

Eleven transgender security guards employed contractually with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have reportedly not received their salaries in the last six months.

When The Indian Express contacted Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram regarding the matter, the commissioner promised swift action and said he had already instructed the security officer to release the payment.

“As per my knowledge, it (the disbursement of salary) has already been done. Will recheck,” he added.

The PMC had given contractual employment to 25 transgender persons through its contractors two years ago. Most of the transgender persons were employed as security guards in civic offices. But one of the contractors who had onboarded 11 transgender workers has failed to clear their payment since February, said Zoya Shirole, Secretary, YUTAK Charitable Trust.

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“Most of the transgender persons either beg or do sex work to make ends meet. In a welcome move, these individuals had got mainstream jobs but are now again left with an uncertain future owing to the lack of timely payment of salaries,” Shirole added.

“Since the NALSA (National Legal Services Authority) judgment in 2014, the government has announced several measures to help the community live with dignity. But as our experience shows, the efforts have fallen short in action. In case transgender persons fall back on their traditional occupation, the future generations would not forgive us,” she further said.

Parthasarathi Biswas

Partha Sarathi Biwas is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express with 10+ years of experience in reporting on Agriculture, Commodities and Developmental issues. He has been with The Indian Express since 2011 and earlier worked with DNA. Partha's report about Farmers Producer Companies (FPC) as well long pieces on various agricultural issues have been cited by various academic publications including those published by the Government of India. He is often invited as a visiting faculty to various schools of journalism to talk about development journalism and rural reporting. In his spare time Partha trains for marathons and has participated in multiple marathons and half marathons. ... Read More

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