23 transgenders among 530 Kudumbasree workers to be posted at metro stations

Twenty-three of the 530 Kudumbasree workers to be posted at 11 stations in the Kochi Metro’s Aluva-Palarivattom corridor will be from the transgender community.

While better educated among the community will be posted at ticket counters, the rest will be deputed for housekeeping works at stations, said sources in the Kudumbasree Mission.

“We would like to give members of the transgender community their rightful share in different jobs at stations. There will be no discrimination between them and women workers,” said Elias George, KMRL’s MD.

“The metro agency is the first government-owned company in India to formally appoint them. I hope other firms in Kerala give them a respectable opportunity to work. Society’s mindset towards them will change only by direct interaction with them. Moreover, members of that community cannot at all be blamed since they are born with such a biological situation,” he added.

Kudumbasree sources said that the 530-member workforce is ready to take up tasks from housekeeping, ticket vending, customer relations, parking, gardening and to man the coach-depot canteen at Muttom. They are likely to be deployed in two or three shifts, depending on need.

All of them have been trained in soft and technical skills and also imparted lessons in safety. They were appointed after written test and interview conducted jointly by the two agencies. Around 41,000 candidates appeared for the test.

More workers are being trained for deputing in five stations between Palarivattom and Maharaja's College Ground, official sources said.