NEW DELHI: The transgender community is slowly finding a place in mainstream employment.Several companies including KPMG Accenture , Nestaway and Sodexo have introduced policies as well as hiring plans to ease the transition of the marginalised community into the formal workplace. Startups like PeriFerry, which exclusively provide trans talent to companies, are also helping set up employment opportunities for the community.Nishant Agarwal, chief operating officer, Periferry, estimates there are 10 million transgender persons in India, with only about 5% being in gainful employment.Education, discrimination in access to housing and ignorance of society as to why gender dysphoria happens are the major challenges the community faces.Despite this, PeriFerry, which was started by Neelam Jain, previously an analyst at Goldman Sachs, has placed 125 people since inception in May 2017.Agarwal says there is enough talent pool among the community, if the right training is provided. Clients include companies like Amazon, ThoughtWorks and ANZ, with candidates placed in housekeeping, programming as well as assistant vice-president roles.The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights Act) 2019, which gives a trans-person the right to stay with their family, and not be excluded, paves way for access to education – one of the biggest problems the community faces.“Skill gap is the key challenge in transgender inclusion at workplace,” says Lakshmi C, managing director and HR lead, Accenture India. To address this, the company has introduced a six-month long internship programme that aims to build a skilled talent pool of transgender candidates.Online home rentals platform Nestaway recently hired five members from the transgender community. Ismail Khan, chief business officer, Nestaway, says this is in line with the company’s purpose – ‘Homes without discrimination.’ Lack of soft skills is also a challenge for trans employees.PeriFerry offers free grooming, communication and interview skills training to trans candidates.A KPMG spokesperson said lack of documentation and a “negligible talent pool” are problems when it comes to the trans community. The company recently hired a senior resource to help in capacity building and work with LGBTQ community in hiring requirements like resume writing and preparing candidates for an interview, the spokesperson said.The integration of the community can be a challenge even after hiring because of the circumstances they come from. “Many transgender people from the lower socio-economic sections tend to live together in ghettos, relying on begging and sex work for financial support,” says Sreya Oberoi, head, diversity and inclusion (India) at Sodexo. The company has started ‘transgender guides’ which help managers understand basic terminology and “creates awareness instead of assumptions”.While recruiting a trans employee, it conducts sensitisation workshops at the site for all employees who are in the same team.Infosys is a signatory to the UN standard for the conduct of business for tackling discrimination against lesbian, gay, bi, trans and intersex people, and has stated that gender is not a mandatory category while applying to the company.Accenture lets employees use their preferred name in internal systems without the need for documentation. It also provides mental health consultation for gender dysphoria and covers sex-reassignment surgery as part of its medical insurance.