KOZHIKODE: The Social Justice Department has joined hands with Uber, the app-based cab aggregator to launch a special project to ensure livelihood to members of the transgender community. Under the project transgenders in the state will be provided four wheeler driving training and later absorbed as drivers of Uber cabs. Though the Uber authorities had approached the state government with a similar proposal earlier, the Social Justice Department could not find transgenders having valid driving licence. Considering the situation the department has come up with a project to provide driving training to selected transgenders with the help of driving schools in the state.
“The project aims to provide livelihood to transgenders in the state. To begin with, five transgenders will be selected from each district and they will be provided training in four-wheeler driving. We expect at least 70 transgenders to benefit from the project in the first phase. Once they get the licence, they will be absorbed under the Uber cab service,” said district social justice officer T P Saraamma
.The project will be implemented by the District Social Justice officers concerned, who will select the beneficiaries from each district. The training will be provided in association with authorised driving schools registered under the Motor Vehicle Department. The department has set aside `5. 95 lakh for the project. The transgender community has welcomed the project. “The project will be helpful to transgenders in the state,” said Sanjesh K C, executive board member of Malabar Cultural Forum, a transgender organisation in Kozhikode.
The project aims to provide livelihood to transgenders in the state. We expect at least 70 transgenders to benefit from the project in the first phasees
T P Saraamma, district social justice officer