In a unique partnership, grassroots social workers and the community of transsexuals are spearheading a campaign to save the girl child and stop female foeticide in Tamil Nadu.
TAI has made inroads into the transgender community with healthcare and skill development plans in 14 districts
POLLACHI (TN): In a unique partnership, grassroots social workers and the community of transsexuals are spearheading a campaign to save the girl child and stop female foeticide in five districts of Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil Nadu Aids Initiative (TAI) has launched the state-run Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) programme in Salem, Madurai, Vellore, Chennai and Coimbatore districts to provide trained ‘aravanis’ (transgender) access to villages where they can spread health awareness and showcase their entrepreneurial skills, as part of a major social integration initiative.
The Sangampalayam village in Pollachi in Coimbatore district last week wore a festive air. The villagers, especially women, poured out of their homes and farms, to hear ‘anganwadi’ workers and their new friends, the eunuchs. They spoke about the need to protect the girl child and ensure their right to health and education.
Seetha and Thenmozhi belong to an 1,000-member anganvadi-aravani team, which has fanned out to five Tamil Nadu districts.
Seetha, along with others from the community of 2,00,000 eunuchs, is also part of TIA’s performance troupes. They are being trained in various traditional art forms to help spread the message of Aids prevention and end the stigma.
“The fact that transgender people talk to the general community on vital issues like female foeticide and the need to educate the girl child is a great initiative,” said Thenmozhi.
The gender balance is skewed in rural Tamil Nadu. In Salem district, the male-female sex ratio is 1,000:851, with rural figures touching as low as 811 girls per 1,000 boys, and the girl-child is fast disappearing because of practices like infanticide.
In the neighbourhood textile town of Coimbatore, 33-year-old Seetha has been accompanying social workers to villages since mid-January, speaking of diseases like tuberculosis, health checks, child care and gender rights.
Peer groups and NGOs, in association with government departments of social welfare, health and education, organised weeklong awareness camps this January to commend the “achievements of transgender campaigners”. “This is a celebration of our identity, we need to express ourselves and showcase our talents,” said Sudha, an eunuch community coordinator.
TAI has made deep inroads into the transgender community with healthcare and skill development programmes in 14 districts with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation known as Avahan and with Voluntary Health
Services.
“A negative image has always been associated with the transgender community. We were initially reluctant to accept them as colleagues, but after interacting with many of the aravani trained by TAI, we are convinced that they need to move towards the mainstream,” said Manimegalai, an ICDS officer from Salem.
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