Maharashtra Govt plans helpline to redress grievances of transgender community

The regional offices of the social justice and special assistance department will be directed start a helpline service to address issues faced by transgenders.

Written by Ravina Warkad

In line with the implementation of Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019, Commissioner, Social Welfare Department has decided to set up a helpline to redress grievances of the transgender community.

The regional offices of the social justice and special assistance department will be directed start a helpline service to address issues faced by transgenders.

“We will issue a circular to set up the helpline to solve the problems faced by transgenders,” Omprakash Bokaria, Commissioner of Social Welfare Department, told The Indian Express Tuesday.

Officials said for the helpline, the already working telephone number of the office would be publicised and one of the existing employees, while handling their current workload, would be handling the helpline too.

A sign board saying “Helpline for transgenders” will be put up immediately at the place of the said room, an official said.

Kadambari Shaikh of the Mangalmukhi Charitable Trust said that a person should be dedicated to the helpline number throughout their office hours, instead of juggling it with their other workload.

The helpline desk is supposed to give information about the welfare schemes implemented by the state government, reach out to educational institutes to solve problems of transgenders. It is aimed at helping trans people in availing schemes like the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana, Shravanbal Seva State Pension Scheme and Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme. It is also aimed to provide assistance in issuing Ration Card, Voter Card, and Aadhar Card.

Pritesh Sanjeevani Chandramani Kamble, inclusion unit head of Centre for Youth Development and Activities (CYDA) India, said that transgenders should be able to avail of the government schemes based on the minimum documents available with them.

“Most transgenders are migrants. They lack documents and don’t have awareness about where to get their Aadhaar updated, or get their transgender certificate, or avail government schemes… Since most transgender people do not have these documents, we have to do advocacy and take them to government offices in groups and request them to grant schemes based on the limited documents available,” Pritesh said.

Talking about the lack of proper documents with transgenders, Kadambari highlights that a lot of times they are thrown out of their houses and hence lack important documents.

Kadambari adds she got her Aadhaar card 25 years ago, and at the time since there were only “male” and “female” options available, she made one that says “female”.

Today she wishes to update it to transgender, but that means edits in all her documents. She says, “What is the point of being in a position, where you get your rights based on another identity, when you are living as a trans woman.” To solve such problems, the trust has been running one-day camps to help transgenders avail beneficial schemes.

Recently, in collaboration with the CYDA and General Post Office, Pune, the trust helped 93 transgenders sign-up for an accident protection scheme.

“But these shouldn’t be done just through one day camps, these facilities should be available 365 days a year. It is everybody’s right to have documents,” Kadambari adds. She explains that to stand on one’s feet, you need documents.

 “With Aadhaar card, pan card, transgender certificate, you can apply for a bank account and get a personal loan. The trust had also requested the commissioner to help them get access to a sensitised bank, because most of the times, banks reject loan applications because of their gender.”

Courtesy : TIE

Note: This news piece was originally published in theindianexpress.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Right