A group of youth from Srinagar have lend a helping hand to the transgender community in the district, which seems to have been severely affected by the pandemic.
The epidemic has affected almost all sections of society, many of whom have become unemployed and many have been left to take care of themselves.
Khushi Mir, a transgender from Srinagar has been without a job for more than a year. Khushi is a make-up artist, she is running out of clients, since there are no weddings due to lockdown.
Despite facing so many hardships in one of the most difficult times the world is facing nothing could stop her and she thought of creating a volunteer group along with four young boys and are distributing food kits to the transgender community. Not only she managed to help herself but hundreds of other transgenders.
By making a network in the valley she has listed around 400 transgenders so far. These transgenders were make-up artists, singers and matchmakers. But due to lockdown, they have lost their livelihoods.
Khushi Mir said that she received a call from her friend few weeks ago who was asking for a help from her as she had no food left. Khushi said she tried to help her on personal basis but later thought of creating a group after receiving more calls from others. She got in touch with Uzair and made a group of five and they are trying their best to reach as many transgenders as possible.
One of the lesser-known sections is the transgender community in the UT, which has to go through harassment and humiliation every now and then which even impacted the vaccination process among the community. To avoid harassment at the vaccination centers, they are requesting the government to create a special vaccination campaign or center for their community.
Also, the other four members of the group are Mir Junaid and Uzair Dar, have managed to crowdfund the project. Many people and organizations from across the country have donated for this purpose.
One of the group members said that they have distributed the food kit to among 50 transgenders which has 25 Kg Rice, 05 Kg oil, tea, sugar and species and in next one month, they are going to cover all 400. The community has claimed that they have not received any help from the government.
