Transgenders, who were considered outcast by the society till recently, is now coming to the forefront with the confidence in themselves. Kudumbashree Mission have been implementing various programmes for bringing them to the forefront of the society. Kudumbashree had formed special NHGs and helped the transgenders find livelihood for themselves.
So far, there are 21 transgender NHGs working in the state which have 274 members. Any person in the transgender community who have completed 18 years of age could be the members of NHG. As per the bylaw, an NHG should consist of 10-20 members. But a concession had been given in the case of trangenders. Even though there are only less than 10 members , transgender NHGs could be formed as the District Mission Coordinator may use their discretion in forming the traansgender NHGs. The so formed transgender NHGs would be given Rs 10,000 as corpus fund. The formation of such NHGs are progressing in different districts across the state. There are 3 transgenders each working in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, 2 each at Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Palakkad, Malappuram and one each at Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasargode.
There are 12 transgender Micro Enterprises working across the state. Nicy Chips, a first of its kind Micro Enterprise unit was launched by a group of transgenders from Aanakulam of Kannur district. Sandhya is the president and Sona is the Secretary of the Micro Enterprise unit. Sneha, Maya, Saumini, Aparna, Jasmine, Reema Satheeshan, Sanana and Laisa are the other members of the unit. An average of 2,000 kg of Chips are sold in a month, even though the business is mainly done focusing on trade fairs inside and outside Kerala. Punarjani Juice Corner from Kozhikode is the group initiative of Monisha, Aleena, Shamna and Varsha.They had been taking part in various trade fairs and now they are about to start a permanent juice shop at the civil station premises. They have a sales of Rs 80,000 per month and each of them is earning Rs 10,000 each a month. They had earned upto Rs 30,000 per person.
Amritha, Anamika, Sabitha are the team behind Lakshys Fruits and Juice Corner at Ernakulam Collectorate Premises at Kakkanad. Kudumbashree Ernakulam District Mission is also situated at the Ernakulam Collectorate premises. The juice shop set up at the kiosk is making a sales of Rs 70,000 per month. Another juice shop and jewellery making unit is also working at NGO Quarters, Ernakulam. Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission is planning to start an outlet as a livelihood activity for transgenders associating with Brahmagiri Society. The vegetables and other products from various units of Kudumbashree would be sold through this proposed outlet.
There are 2 transgender NHGs in Pathanamthitta and they are located at pandalam and Kodumon. Each NHG is running 2 Micro Enterprise units. The five membered group from Kodumon started a dance school. Shyama Prasad, Rahul Raj, Prasad, Sunil Kumar, Aravind are giving leadership to their dance school. 4 students are studying in this school. The other Micro Enterprise units at Pandalam lends the costumes and jewellery for dance programmes. There are 3 Micro Enterprise units at Alappuzha and one Micro Enterprise unit in Malappuram as well.
Nicy Chips of Kannur and Punarjani Juice unit of Kozhikode had took part in Saras fairs and other food festivals. Nicy Chips had also took part at the Saras Fair held at Delhi, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Kudumbashree had also made a path breaking gesture by employing trangenders in Kochi Metro through Kudumbashree Facility Management Centre. Presently 14 transgenders are working in Kochi Metro. Kudumbashree is thereby bringing the transgender community from the state of outcast to the accepted.
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