NGO sets up temporary shelter for members of transgender community

Sinha said the shelter, built with support from a cross-section of society, will accommodate abandoned transgenders thrown out of their homes for a short period. Once an inmate will move out after a stipulated time, another member of the community will be given accommodation.

An NGO has set up a home here that will provide temporary shelter to members of the transgender community who have nowhere to go. The home 'Astana', located in South Kolkata's Prince Anwar Shah Road has three rooms having two beds each with tastefully done interiors and specialized washroom for the community members.

Danseuse Alakananda Roy, who inaugurated the home last week told PTI on Sunday she was very happy that such an initiative could be thought about for these marginalised people who were ostracized by their own family and treated as outcasts by the neighbours. "This can be one place where these people who have committed no crime can live freely before finding alternative accommodation where they will not be treated as outcasts," Roy, who had pioneered culture therapy for correctional home inmates and always stands by the marginalised in society, said.

She said despite the inherent danger to move out during COVID-19 time, "I decided to go out to open the facility, leaving my home for the first time in five months. I could not ignore the call of these people who need our love and affection more than others." "They all touched my feet and I blessed them while keeping social distancing norms," Roy said. Six transgenders can live in the home set up by an NGO which is working for the rights of minority gender community members. West Bengal Transgender Welfare Board member Ranjita Sinha is among those key persons behind this initiative.

Roy said a woman whose transgender child went missing at the age of 10 is looking after the inmates at the home as she finds her lost child among these humans thrown out of their home only because they are perceived to be different from us. Sinha said the shelter, built with support from a cross-section of society, will accommodate abandoned transgenders thrown out of their homes for a short period.

Once an inmate will move out after a stipulated time, another member of the community will be given accommodation. A 25-year-old transgender from South 24 Parganas is happy to have got the chance to live in the home.

"I was taunted in my locality as the para boys used to whistle as I passed by. I was not liked by anyone. Even my parents said they are embarrassed. One day I left home for the city. Finally, I am happy to be here even for a brief time before I find a permanent shelter," the transgender woman said..