Members of the transgender community have been passing their hard days in Chuadanga and other parts of the country.
Most of them live in extreme poverty as they are excluded from cultural, religious, political and professional spheres. They also face discrimination from their families and society from the moment they are born.
Against this backdrop, Chuadanga Social Welfare Department (SWD) has taken a plan to include transgender people into the mainstream to ensure their rights, as this community lags far behind others. The Chuadanga SWD has been implementing a massive plan for transgender through providing different social positive jobs instead of their traditional work like dancing with newborn children and collecting money from train passengers.
The plan offers scholarships to Hijra children, skills training to those aged 18 and over, and allowances for people older than 50, among other development and social security services, said Deputy Director of Social Welfare Department Sontos Kumar Nath.
According to the department, about 43 enlisted transgender people are in Chuadanga district. Of them 11 transgender have been getting monthly allowance and six transgender people have been receiving educational expenses from the government.
Sontos Kumar Nath said the department has taken various training programmes as per their skills. After completing trainings, they would be provided in different jobs for earing money.
It is learnt from the department that about 300 children are going to introduce themselves as transgender in the district. After examining of medical team, they will be declared transgender.
The government finally approved a law in 2013 recognizing them as "the third or separate gender." This included a legal provision guaranteeing them education and employment opportunities. It also allowed them register to vote, obtain identity cards marking them as Hijra, and receive limited welfare allowances, sources added.
Lota Khatun, a member of the community, said with tears ‘My father was a government employee. He had a two-storied building. Most of the villagers of the areas of Jashore used to slang language about me for hijra. So, I made a decision to leave my home, parents, brothers and sisters, when I was a student of Class Seven. I did it accordingly, reached to Chuadanga and took shelter with the community. After passing some days my father died of heart attack for thinking about me.”
“My family in the district town was facing social humiliation because of me. So, I thought it was best to leave to release them from the unendurable pain, I am now happy,” Nargis Akhtar said.
“We are trying to integrate them into mainstream community by slowly diminishing the gaps and discriminatory attitudes through involving in different type of social jobs,” Santos Kumar Nath, DD of Social Welfare Department said.