NEW DELHI: Twenty-three year old Prakriti Soni identifies as a transwoman and confidently holds out her curriculum vitae that shows her to be a graduate in English, psychology and theatre from a renowned university.
With sporadic modelling and acting assignments proving inadequate for her to stay afloat and support the completion of her gender reassignment treatment, Soni came all the way from Bengaluru seeking a regular job at the first of its kind ‘National Transgender Employment Mela 2023’ in Delhi that brought employers and candidates from the community on a common platform for fast-track employment.
Articulate and confident, Soni is hopeful of landing a job like many others who queued up for interviews as busy recruiters sifted through CVs to create a database. Similar stories of overcoming the odds to claim their space, battling trans-phobia and speaking out about their identity floated around at the venue on Friday at the day long fair in which 30 renowned companies with diverse profiles like Tata Steel, Godrej Properties, Accenture, Amex (American Express) took part. Some of the other companies include Publicis Sapient, Mahindra Logistics, Thompson Reuters, among others.
Most recruiters TOI spoke to said that their organisation was ready to embrace diversity. For instance, the Tata Steel team shared that it was in 2021 that they first started recruiting transgender persons and that experience has only strengthened their resolve to bring in many more into their fold.
The event was organised by voluntary organisations Tweet Foundation and InHarmony which provides consultancy services, in association with the National Institute of Social Defence that comes under the purview of the ministry of social justice and empowerment. Highlighting that the fair was an important step in the outreach to deliver on the provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019, NISD director Dr R. Giriraj told TOI that efforts will be made to plan job fairs at regular intervals and support similar events at regional levels too. “The aim of this job fair is to make trans-persons financially independent and also promote the idea of inclusive workspaces and counter trans-phobia.”
Thirty-seven year old transman Romil Thakur, a resident of Delhi was seen giving an interview at the Amex stall. A post-graduate, Thakur had to leave his full time job at an insurance company when he decided to go for gender re-assignment treatment to transition from a female to a man. With his transition complete, he currently works at a small sales company and was at the job fair in the hope of landing a job of his dreams now that he was free live the identity he associates with.
According to the organisers, in the run-up to the fair a drive was started and around 500 transgender community members submitted their resumes. Out of these around 35 have found jobs since and around 100 who fit the profile of companies coming to the fair came on Friday to try their luck. At the end of the fair, each of the companies had shortlisted 15-20 candidates and the organisers hope that the hiring will follow soon.
Courtesy : TOI
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights.
