DINDIGUL: Proposals had been sent to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to allot 3% reservation for transgenders to enable Gandhigram Rural Institute to admit them in all courses offered by it, said S. Natarajan, Vice-Chancellor.
Addressing a national seminar on ‘Literature of the transgenders’ held at Gandhigram on Monday, he said more than five lakh transgenders had been struggling for a decent living in India. Imparting education to them to make them employable would help improve their social status, and ultimately help them lead a decent life.
In his address, Assistant Professor T. Anantha Vijay said unlike lesbians, gay and bisexuals, the transgenders had a greater need to be seen differently, as it was not their sexual orientation that demanded attention but the lack of choice in their being transgender was most important.
The main objective of the seminar was to enable academicians, students and society to reorient themselves positively towards the transgenders. Atrocities were committed against them. Deprivation on economic, emotional, educational, social and familial fronts had driven them to form a society of their own and live within it. Now their writings were emerging for the public to read, he added.
