Trans Employment Mela aims to offer mainstream jobs to members of transgender community, ETHRWorld
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New Delhi, The third edition of Trans Employment Mela held at Lalit Hotel here on Wednesday was attended by more than 160 aspirants from transgender community, who sought employment in various fields including HR, hotel management, IT, business analytics, logistics, fashion and craft.An initiative of the Tweet Foundation and InHarmony, held in association with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Trans Employment Mela aimed to secure 100 placements for transgender and non-binary individuals - up from 77 last year and 58 in its first edition in 2023.With participation from 17 companies, the mela featured job interviews, sensitisation workshops, networking sessions, panel discussions and performances by community artistes.Speaking about the employment drive, Abhina Aher, founder of Tweet Foundation, said there are about 15-20 lakh transgenders in India, but they do not find jobs despite being educated."Through this mela, companies will get more sensitised and hire more transgenders. The transgender community will receive more respect due to them. They will be able to earn a living and support their families," Aher said.Anupama Eeshwaran, founder of InHarmony, noted the importance of economic empowerment of the transgender community."If we want to empower them, we must provide them jobs. If they have jobs, they will be economically empowered and can do a lot many things. There are nearly 50 per cent transgenders who are graduates and a lot of them are first-time job seekers. Most companies who came here have never seen such a job mela where more than 160 candidates are transgenders," she said.The mela saw the participation of leading companies like Mahindra Logistics, Karma Care, Publicis Sapient, Hexaware, EY Foundation and The Lalit.Priya of Mahindra Logistics said that the company is "committed to fostering a culture of inclusivity, equity and accessibility" to all its employees."We also ensure that we not only support but also value the diversity of our people and that it is irrespective of gender identity, nationality, race and gender orientation. We value the talent, the diverse background, education and different values that people bring with them. We have infrastructure in place, we have gender neutral washrooms. We have new parent policies in place. We have policies that focus on actually empowering people irrespective of their background," she said.While many transgenders at the mela were first-time job seekers, not all were freshers.Nitin, a 23-year-old trans person and graduate from Hindu College, shared the perspective of having worked with an MNC as a business analyst and said that even though corporates have made strides in inclusivity, there is still a long way to go."In the last 10 years, the situation has changed. Companies are becoming more accepting of the LGBTQIA community, but there is still a long way to go. Not all workplaces have gender-neutral washrooms, which creates a lot of problems for transgender and non-binary people. Also, a lot of times they don't get jobs because of their gender identities," Nitin said.Naaz Joshi, India's first international transgender queen, advised the community members to try and adjust to work environments where they are welcomed."It is becoming inclusive. The problem is that while there is inclusivity, there is no sensitisation happening in the corporates. People from the transgender community are very sensitive. They feel bad about small things. But we need to understand that we have to give time to other people to adjust to us. What is happening is people do get jobs, but they leave the jobs before they even get used to it," Joshi said.
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