Tamil Nadu Schools to Invite Transgender Activists and Counselors to Take Gender Identity Sessions

To initiate the eradication of Gender discrimination problem, especially with transgender, some schools of Tamil Nadu are inviting transgender activists and counselors to help students get sensitize of the societal/ community discrimination and other related problems against the transgender.

The transgender community is suffering and also openly harassed on the streets, hence awareness needs to be created among students right from now said. Charles Mohan, president of the parent association at Kilkotagiri Government Higher Secondary School. 

To talk about the problems and to inculcate the sense of discrimination towards transgender being wrong, the school had invited Kalki Subramaniam, founder of Sahodari Foundation for transgender welfare, who spoke on this matter with senior students as well as teachers on 28 October, 2013. .

Kalki spoke that frequently transgender children are harassed and sexually abused in schools by facing the verbal, physical and sexual abuse attack which results in their leaving the schools and they completely drop out. Because of lack of Education the most children of such communities have their plight on streets, towards route to become a sex worker or end up begging for a living.

KalkiSubramaniam who in the past have also spoken on this matter, putting focus on such community problems in a few schools such as ViswaShanthi Matriculation in Kotagiri and Montfort Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Yercaud anticipates that these talks and sessions will help the students’ refraining from the discriminating behavior towards transgender and the students belonging to the transgender community would also not end up leaving schools and going on the streets.

Other than the talk session, students as well as faculty are also stimulated to portraytheir harmonious feelings about the transgender community using art forms such as drawing, painting etc, said S Hariparthan, an event and arts manager at Sahodari Foundation.

Class 8 to Class 11 would be made to attend the sessions as educationists feel that they have reached that agein which they can understand such issues. Focus on sensitizing faculty through sessions has also been to equip them well to handle gender variant children among their school.  Around 500 students along with 120 teachers attended the talk session at Montfort. 
The Chennai schools have not broughtup such sessions as yet. Magdalene Jeyarathnam, founder of Centre of Counseling, told some schools do come to her when there is a related issue or a problem is faced.