Alleged discrimination and refusal by house owners and hostels in the city to provide accommodation for them seem to be prompting the transgender employees of Kochi Metro, which had set out to create a new trend in gender equality by appointing members of the community as its staff, to abandon their jobs. As per reports, only 12 of the 21 transgenders, who had joined the Kochi Metro, are currently appearing for duty.
“The supervisors and other staff are interacting with the men and women in my section warmly but I haven’t been getting that warmth,” complained a member of the transgender community working in the housekeeping department of the Kochi Metro.
“The fact is that the society’s outlook is refusing to change. It is almost impossible to get accommodation for us,” she said.
The decision of the Kochi Metro Rail limited (KMRl) to induct transgenders as its staff had received appreciation nationally and to some extent, internationally and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while commissioning the Metro on June 17, had showered praises on Kerala’s CPI(M)-led lDF Government and KMRl for the revolutionary move.
“That revolution may not survive for long if the Kerala society, which takes pride in its status of being fully literate and highly conscious politically and socially, doesn’t change”, says a Kochi-based activist working for the rights of the community.
“The KMRl is capable of resolving the problems within it, if there are any, but it is difficult to change the society’s mindset,” she says.
According to a transgender Ragaranjini, who works in the ticketing section of the Kochi Metro at Idappally, for a take-home salary of Rs10,400, she is not facing any serious problems at the work place but what worries her is the difficulty in getting accommodation in the city, known as Kerala’s commercial capital and for its cosmopolitan culture, for members of her community.
“landlords in Kochi are generally unwilling to rent out houses or rooms to us. We have to depend on lodging facilities that charge Rs600, Rs700 or Rs800 as rent for a day. How can I spend that kind of money daily considering the size of my monthly payIJ Presently, financial assistance is coming from the family. But how long can it workIJ” Ragaranjini asks.
“Some passengers seem to show some aversion to my counter but most of them are all right. Some even ask me about my work and life. But the world outside the Metro is different. When I get out of the station late at night after duty and wait for a vehicle on the road, the only thing that gives me confidence is my uniform with KMRl emblem,” she told the media.
“Somehow, even the most modern-minded Keralites are still unable to recognise people from this community as normal individuals. They can’t digest the fact that these people were also born to parents just like them. There seems to be a general feeling that transgenders should earn their livelihood from the city’s dark back-streets,” fumes the Kochi-based activist.
However, not all the transgenders are finding fault with the KMRl though some activists question the Metro Rail company’s sincerity in ensuring availability of minimum facilities they require. “It is up to the State Government, which had initiated the revolutionary step, to help the transgenders with the KMRl in this regard,” said Deena, a member of the community.
Sources in the KMRl expressed helplessness as far as providing additional facilities exclusively for their employees from the transgender community. “We can understand the problems of the members of this community. But we have limitations. There must be other ways to solve the problem,” said a KMRl official.