Hyderabad: A much-awaited transgender skilling project took off at VLCC Institute of Beauty and Nutrition, SR Nagar, with a pilot batch of 20 students.
City is the first to host this kind of a zero-cost skilling project for the community. New Delhi and Bengaluru may soon follow suit.
Students will be trained for the position of Assistant Beauty Therapist, and will also be assisted with employment opportunities from VLCC. There was high anticipation and a keen wait among community members for the launch of this project, students said during the introductory session.
The project fell in place as the culmination of two years of consistent efforts on the part of The Humsafar Trust and the Beauty and Wellness Sector Skilling Council (B&WSSC). These non-profit organizations, based in Mumbai and New Delhi respectively, have been trying to mould the national ‘Skill India’ initiative into a life-changing opportunity for LGBTQ community members, with a special focus on transgender persons.
“The question of how to go about the nitty-gritty of transgender community empowerment has been with us ever since the 2014 NALSA judgment of the Supreme Court. Skilling is largely non-existent in this community and the members often do not want to sign up for regular jobs.
Our socio-economic survey showed that they were most interested in personal service jobs, such as make-up artiste, beauty therapist, hair stylist, tattoo artiste, mehendi artiste and the like. Hence, we decided to provide beauty therapy course to the community members, free of cost,” Murugesan S, director of the project ‘TRANScend’ by The Humsafar Trust, explained to Telangana Today.
B&WSSC head of operations Aradhana Tripathi said the whole thing took two years to materialize.
“B&WSSC is financially supported by the National Skill Development Corporation under the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. While there are several programmes being worked out, mobilization of marginalized community members is a tough challenge. Which is why we are grateful for the support from community-based organizations,” said Aradhana.
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