Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal on Thursday said that there is a need for formation of a separate Board for upliftment of transgender community.
The people belonging to third gender community have all the right to live their life with dignity like people of other sections of the society. Any kind of discrimination with them is condemnable, he said while addressing a day-long workshop here .
It was the first workshop of its kind for people of transgender community in the State.
Earlier, Agrawal inaugurated the workshop which held by the Social Welfare Department at Kalibadi compound situated at Ravindra Sadan. Social Welfare Minister, Ramsheela Sahu presided over the programme.The workshop was aimed to explore possibilities of socio-economic rehabilitation of this community, making working plans for them and ensuring their contribution for the State’s development.
He said that the State Government is committed to ensure security and dignity of the third gender.
While presiding over the programme, Social Welfare Minister Ramsheela Sahu said that a State Discretion Committee should be constituted to provide security and facilities to the transgender community in Chhattisgarh.
She said that Social Welfare Department has directed the officials concerned to complete the survey of transgender community by next month so that the survey report can be analyzed and considered while chalking out action plan for their welfare.
She said that special initiative will be taken up to introduce laws concerning rights of third gender. Social-cultural traditions of transgender community will be considered on a serious note while chalking out the action plan for their rehabilitation.
Sahu further said that separate arrangement of not only health services should be made for transgender people and Social Welfare Department is taking the necessary steps in this direction.
On the occasion, Social Welfare Department Secretary Dinesh Shrivastava, Superintendent of Police (SP) Raipur OP Pal, representative of Sarvodaya Foundation Chennai (Tamil Nadu) Kalki, representative of UNDP New Delhi Dr Alka Narang and AIDS Control Committee member Dr Vedprakash Shukla also addressed the workshop.
Raipur Jila Panchayat President lakshmi Verma, Health and Family Welfare Department Commissioner Pratap Singh, State Planning Commission member PP Soti, representatives of NGOs and large number of transgender people were also present.