Friday, November 20, 2015

Transgenders ramp up efforts for recognition


Ashish Yechury, TNN

Image from, with caption: Eunuchs armed with brooms, sticks, sandals and playcards with hard hitting anti-rape slogans on January 4, 2013 in New Delhi, India. Moved by recent Delhi Gang Rape case, the 900 member strong eunuch organisation SPACE- Society For People's Awareness, Care and empowerment has set up a women helpline to register their complain. They are planning to form squads that will publicly embarrass those who sexually harass women.

Excerpt:
NEW DELHI: Tall models sashaying down a makeshift ramp to the tune of Bollywood numbers and a cacophony of hoots, whistles and cheers to greet them. This hybrid dance-cum-fashion show, which took place at the Civil Lines on Thursday, could be like any other-except for one crucial difference: All the models were transgender.
The show, called 'Sapno ki Baraat', was organised by the Society for Peoples' Awareness, Care and Empowerment (SPACE), an organisation dedicated to working for the marginalised sections of society. All the models are associated with SPACE's Zeenat club, which exclusively works with the transgender community.
The show was more than just about fashion and dancing, though. It also served as a launchpad for a year-long skills development programme for transgender people. The programme will focus on development of a number of skills for members of the community, ranging from computer training to hair styling. The project is supported by the Netherlands embassy and Jan-Jaap Gerads, second secretary (political affairs and public diplomacy), was the chief guest at the show. ... 
 "LGBT rights are a part of the Netherlands' commitment to human rights. To this end, we support this programme, which, we hope, will help improve things for the community in India," he said. ...

No comments: