PMC's welfare schemes for transgender community translate into nothing on ground

Pune: Over a year after the Pune Municipal Corporation announced a range of welfare schemes for the transgender community, not a single benefit, monetory or otherwise, reflected on the ground.
Schemes rollout in Jan 2024 promised a comprehensive upliftment package for the transgender community. Along with the healthcare stipend, PMC also proposed Rs 15,000 grants for self-help groups (SHGs) run by transgender people, one-time vocational training and self-employment assistance of Rs 10,000 for transgender persons between 18 and 45 years.
Civic authorities were also reported to be actively looking for empty plots to build shelter homes for the city's transgender population, a part of the initiatives announced.
None of the schemes moved forward.
Transgender activists call it another chapter in a long history of tokenism. "There has been no consideration, no call for discussion, nothing from PMC," Bindumadhav Khire, an LGBTQ+ rights activist and founder of Samapathik Trust, told TOI.
"We even wrote a letter to PMC asking for access to one of the many abandoned school buildings in the city. We offered to run a shelter home for the transgender community there free of cost, find our own funding and manage the space.
We only asked for one or two rooms. We said we were open to a dialogue, but no one ever responded. They say all the right things in public, but do nothing," the activist said.
"The social justice department, where I was part of the transgender grievance committee, was no different. I eventually resigned because they never acted on anything," Khire told TOI.
Among these schemes, one of the most publicized was monthly Rs1,000 healthcare allowance for transgender people over the age of 45.
It was meant to begin in early 2024, but it is stuck in the proposal stage without any progress on budget, disbursement, etc, to date.
"All these initiatives are in the proposal stage," confirmed Nitin Udas, deputy commissioner, social empowerment department, PMC.
"A major issue is the lack of documentation for transgender people to apply for any such schemes for their welfare," Udas said.
Members of the community say that lack of documentation is an old excuse. "We are asked for Aadhaar, bank account details, name match with IDs. But most of us do not have these documents because the system still hasn't caught up with our identities and gender. All these welfare schemes are just lip service," said Parvati Chavan (52), a transwoman. MSID:: 121863304 413 |

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