More than 100 members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community joined the first pride walk on the streets of Jaipur despite a downpour on Monday.
The community demanded implementation of the Supreme Court order of April 15, 2014, which declared transgenders as a socially and economically backward class entitled to reservations in education and jobs, and also directed Union and state governments to frame welfare schemes for them.
The transgenders participating in the pride walk said despite the order, the state government was still to include them in its welfare schemes.
In most government schemes, there is no space for a transgender in the gender column, they said. Pushpa, the state coordinator of the LGBT community, said there was no legal and social protection for the community. “We want the government to make amendments in its laws to give us benefits of schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme,” Pushpa said.
The new generation of transgenders wants to stand on their own their feet, but the government doesn’t seem too keen to give them their share of benefits from its welfare schemes, Pushpa added. In most of the forms, the community members have to manually write transgender or others in the gender column, the members pointed out.
People’s Union for Civil Liberties general secretary Kavita Srivastava, who participated in the walk, said the purpose of the event was to tell the world that the transgenders exist. “There’s a deep historic wrong that has been done to the community. They wanted to tell the world that they are happy, vibrant and colourful people like you and me,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}People’s Union for Civil Liberties general secretary Kavita Srivastava, who participated in the walk, said the purpose of the event was to tell the world that the transgenders exist. “There’s a deep historic wrong that has been done to the community. They wanted to tell the world that they are happy, vibrant and colourful people like you and me,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}The pride walk took place from Chomu House Circle to Udyog Maidan near Statue Circle.
In Rajasthan, there are about 2,000 transgender people above 18 years of age, according to the National Aids Control Organisation mapping in 2013.