Transgender persons will be imparted training in various trades like computer, beautician, tailoring, cooking, music besides informal education and religious teaching
Center has been established by Sindh Social Welfare Department; enrollment would begin within a few days; Hyderabad has a population of about 700 transgender persons
Hyderabad: Sindh Social Welfare Department has established a Vocational Training Center named as ‘Community Development Center’ (CDC) for imparting training to the members of transgender community of Hyderabad.
The members of transgender community will be imparted training of different vocations like computer, beautician, tailoring, cooking, music along with informal education and religious teaching.
The Social Welfare Department had planned setting up three such centers – one each in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur following the Supreme Court orders in 2012.
The Hyderabad Center, located in Qasimabad, was made functional recently when Director General, Social Welfare Department, Sindh Mr. Ghulam Abbas Detho formally inaugurated the CDC on February 18, 2021.
Click on Sindh Courier to watch inaugural ceremony video
The CDC has been established with a view to provide opportunity to the members of transgender community to develop their skills so that they can live a respectable life. Such trainings will make their life easy and save them from beggary and drugs.
Assistant Director, Social Welfare, Tasneem Ahmed Memon, who is the in-charge of CDC Hyderabad, told Sindh Courier that he has approached a number of members of transgender community in Hyderabad including their Guru Sana Khan, with the help of social activist Ms. Nazish Fatima. “We will start their enrollment within a few days,” he said.
Guru Sana Khan and some other transgender persons have visited the CDC and assured their cooperation. “According to Guru, they will hold meeting to decide the vocations for each community member as per their aptitude,” the official told.
The Guru has also provided a list containing the names of transgender persons along with their address and contact number. “Although the list is short but they have promised to share more names,” he said.
To a question, Tasneem Ahmed told that the transgender persons were reluctant at the outset and it took lot of time to convince them for taking benefit of the facility being provided to them by the government. “The government has even employed a music teacher – Ustad Aqeel Waris, to teach them music,” he told.
As regards the total population of transgender community in Hyderabad, Tasneem Ahmed told that no any formal survey has so far been conducted, but as the Guru Sana Khan says, there are at least 700 transgender persons in the city. “They are concentrated in certain localities of the city.”
Social Activist Ms. Nazish Fatima, who is very actively working for the rights of transgender community in Hyderabad, also visited the CDC. She lauded the Social Welfare Department’s initiative however viewed that still so many hurdles and challenges are there for transgender community. “The transgender persons are generally known as sex workers. The society doesn’t look at them with any respect,” she said and underscored the need to change such perceptions. “We all must change our attitudes towards transgender persons.”
Nazish requested the Social Welfare Department officials to take more steps and make it easy for transgender community to live a respectable life.
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