In a first for a government agency, Kochi Metro Rail has reserved a total of 60 jobs for transgender women and has already recruited 23 for ticketing, housekeeping and customer care in stations.
A city metro system in Kerala has launched trailblazing recruitment drive among transgender women, who often resort to dancing at weddings or begging on trains and streets for a living.
In a first for a government agency, Kochi Metro Rail has reserved a total of 60 jobs for transgender women and has already recruited 23 for ticketing, housekeeping and customer care in stations, as the community gains rights and visibility.
Rashmi CR, a spokeswoman for Kochi Metro Rail, said: ‘We had seen how they struggle for work and wanted to give some of them an opportunity to make a decent living.
‘We expect that people will be accepting of them, and that other companies will also come forward to employ them.’
While India’s two million transgender people have recently been accorded basic civil rights, most still face discrimination from a young age.
In a landmark judgment in 2014, the Supreme Court ruled transgender people had equal rights under the law, and granted legal status to the third gender.
They were given the right to marry and inherit property, and became eligible for quotas in jobs and educational institutions.
But abuse and exploitation are widespread. Often thrown out of home by their families, many lack formal education and are denied jobs, and forced into sex work, begging, or dancing at weddings to make ends meet.
In Kochi, a port city on India’s southwestern coast, an attack on transgender women last year sparked a conversation between city officials and the transgender community about challenges they face, Rashmi said. Jobs were a key concern.
Kudumbashree, a women’s community organisation in Kerala, is helping to identify and screen transgender women for various jobs at Kochi Metro Rail. The women are being trained for their jobs.
‘They are as much a part of our society as you and I, yet they have been marginalised and alienated for so long, ‘ said Dilraj KR, a project manager at Kudumbashree. ‘We hope that with proper jobs, they will be more accepted and respected.’
