India’s First Railway Tea Stall operated by Transgender Community, Business Tycoon Anand Mahindra lauds initiative

The Indian Railways Ministry recently took the initiative of opening an astounding Tea Stall at the Guwahati Train Station which is managed by the Transgender Community. This revolutionary step marks one more contribution made to the upliftment of the third gender.

For the very first time in Indian Railways, a Tea Stall has been opened at Guwahati Rly Stn Platform 1 which will be managed only by transgenders. A testament to the clarion call of 'Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas', this stall will be a pillar for empowerment of the transgender community pic.twitter.com/GmtAYBz5ZO

— Northeast Frontier Railway (@RailNf) March 10, 2023

It is in full support and acceptance of the Transgender Community. This first-ever tea shop will be completely operated by people belonging to the trans section of society.

According to the official information, the North East Frontier Railway (NEFR) and the All Assam Transgender Association have jointly launched a tea shop in the month of March 2023.

'सबका साथ-सबका विकास'🌈

समावेशी विकास और ट्रांसजेंडर्स के सशक्तीकरण के लिए भारतीय रेल की अनूठी पहल। देश में पहली बार गुवाहाटी रेलवे स्टेशन पर खोला गया ‘ट्रांस टी स्ट्राल’। pic.twitter.com/S10jfc3ud0

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) March 13, 2023

Trans Tea Stall Inauguration

The collaboration between NEFR and the All Assam Transgender Association is for the empowerment of trans and queer sections of society. The NEFR aims at creating other such visionary ventures in order to promote the equality of the sexes. 

Moreover, the focus is on inclusion and reshaping the lives of the diverse communities of Trans or LGBTQ communities. 

India’s first “Trans Tea Stall” at a railway platform.

📍Guwahati Railway Station pic.twitter.com/JSi8OS9VKM

— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) March 13, 2023

Social Media Responses

Recently it was seen that as soon as the Northeast Frontier Railways posted a tweet describing the inauguration ceremony of Trans Tea Shop, people have been crowding the comment section.  Not only masses around the world, but Ashwine Vaishnaw also tweeted about the project.

Next was the famous businessman and the chairperson of the Mahindra Group, Mr Anand Mahindra further commended the initiative as he was glad and captivated by the government-powered efforts.

Anand Mahindra posted several pictures of the inaugural event of the newly established tea shop. He also tagged the Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw. Mr Anand expressed his views by saying that this one small initiative is a big significant & transformational step among many other innovative projects taken up by the government. The Indian Railways holds more than 8 billion people. He further praised the Railway Ministry in his statement. 

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 This one small, initiative is, in my view, as significant & transformational as your many other progressive projects. Indian railways carries over 8 billion people. And most important, excludes no one. Bravo @AshwiniVaishnaw https://t.co/jraMFkwurA

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 14, 2023

While Anand Mahindra mentions his joy by posting on the online Twitter handle, various other tweets came in the form of people’s opinions. Someone asserted that it is one of the evolutionary steps of inclusiveness as part of the “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas” scheme. Whereas another one said that a majority of such initiatives and achievements can be seen in North East India. 

Some people disagreed with the name of the stall and said that it is not right to put the third gender or Trans name as it stands against the mission of inclusivity. “Sirji, in case you get the opportunity to interact and influence all those related to this venture - why not REMOVE the word TRANS from the name and therefore the hoarding? That would be the true test of social acceptance and progress! Regards”, argued a Twitter user. 

Trans Tea Stall Concept

This idea of installing a trans-operated tea shop was put forward by the Railways in partnership with the Trans Association of North East India. March marks the new beginning of this shop that has been set up at Guwahati. The inauguration was done by Anshul Gupta, General Manager of NEFR. 

The shop is beautifully decorated in bright pink colour and two trans people are in charge of the tea shop. They have kept items like tea, cold drinks, biscuits, fruit juice, etc. The Associate VC of the Assam Transgender Welfare Board, Swati Bidhan Baruah is hopeful for trans and queer communities and encourages the employment of such people under several schemes laid out by the government. 

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