ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICTA) Administration has recruited two transgender persons in its office on daily wages.

Lubna and Nadra were allowed to work as semi-skilled worker in local government and rural development (LG&RD) department of ICTA, said a notification issued by Deputy Commissioner office.

The development to this effect came after Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat had made promise to transgender community for the provision of jobs, few months ago.

“It is the first time in the history of federal capital that trans people get job in any public sector office,” said the Deputy Commissioner.

Talking to APP, he said the administration was striving to come up with trans-inclusive policies so they can earn respectable earning.

He expressed the hope that if this model was replicated in other cities, things would definitely improve.

Shafqaat maintained that Islamabad administration had taken initiatives for transgender people to pull them out of the helplessness they have been facing in life.

A madrassah (Islamic centre) had been established that help trans people assimilate into mainstream society, he said.

Passed in 2018, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act ensures the right to be recognised as per ones perceived gender identity and guarantees fundamental rights, including inheritance, education, employment, voting, holding public office, health, access to public spaces and property, to transgender citizens.

Transgender people face different challenges in the country. The marginalized community faces stigmatization, social exclusion and consequent banishment from the society that makes transgender peoples life even tougher. Majority of them have been found having indulged in inappropriate conducts as selling sex and substance abuse.

The transgender community is socially excluded in the society where they experience high levels of physical abuse and face discriminatory behavior in daily life.

Such attitudes make them vulnerable, forcing them to become commercial sex workers and beggars.

Many of the community members are abandoned by the family. They share house with a group of residents and often come on streets to beg.

They could hardly get education which pushes them further down the society.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021