Sex-change surgery in govt hospitals soon

KOLKATA: The government will take special efforts to ensure that the marginalized transgenders become a part of the mainstream of the society. This was decided at the first meeting of the state's transgender development board at Nabanna on Friday.

State social welfare and women and child development minister Sashi Panja, who is also the chairperson of the transgender development board, said that a mass awareness drive would be carried out so that the members of the state' s 30,000-strong transgender community could live with dignity.

The minister also said that they would shortly set up sex reassignment surgery (SRS) units in government hospitals. This, she hoped, would minimize financial and various other difficulties that the transgenders face while undergoing sex-change surgeries at private hospitals.

Krishnagar College principal Manabi Bandyopadhyay, who is the vice-chairperson of board, said that they held a discussion with the nine transgender board members on Friday to address the problems faced by the members of the community.

She said that there were plans to set up a 24x7 helpline for transgenders and other sexual minority communities such as LGBT.

" They will be able to lodge a complaint at the helpline even if they are assaulted or heckled by their family members," she said.

Bandyopadhyay said that the transgenders usually prefer to have the gender role which is different from the gender with which they are born. While discussing the odds that she had to face in her life, she said that she was denied financial benefits for five years while doing her PhD as she had changed her name and sex.

The state government is also planning to have special toilets for the transgenders. The transgenders had earlier complained that they were being harassed while using ladies' toilets. Panja said that she would take up the matter of setting up toilets for transgenders on a priority basis. A special ward for transgenders has already been set up at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The board, which has its office in Salt Lake, is also planning to build a shelter for the transgenders who face hostile environment at home.

Panja said that since the Supreme Court has recently ordered to include transgenders in welfare programmes, the state government was planning to have education and health projects for them.