LGBTIQA – Dutch Uncles

PeriFerry, Helping the Transgender Community Find Employment

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 05:30:28 +0000

When non-cooperation from colleagues and harassment from students forced Dr. Manabi Bandopadhyay to resign from her principal designation, it became evident that the career progression or employment of a transgender in India is abysmal.

Manabi is educated but yet she had to bear society’s jibes on sexuality that forced her to resign, now imagine the plight of those transgenders in India who are devoid of basic formal education, and are left to become either beggars or drawn into the dark world of prostitution for survival.

According to an economics professor, Lee Badgett from the University of Massachusetts India has been losing as much as 1.4 percent of its national output because of the discriminatory law Section 377.

After lifting the ban 158-year-old colonial law that decriminalised same-gender relationships and denied transgender identity, several companies are opening the corporate doors for the transgender community.

A former Goldman Sachs employee Neelam Jain is helping the transgender community realise the dream of living a dignified life through her platform PeriFerry- a socially inclusive start-up that helps transgender people getting placement in organisations offering them sustainable jobs.

What Is PeriFerry?

Started by Neelam Jain in 2017 in Chennai, PeriFerry is a socially inclusive start-up that aids trans individuals get sustainable jobs in an organisation. The platform provides free essential training to the candidates in diverse skills such as soft skills, spoken English, computer fundamentals, and grooming. PeriFerry benefits transgenders by giving them employment opportunities in fields like software, HR, graphic design, accountancy, tech support, hospitality, food delivery, and makeup. Moreover, it also organises sensitisation workshops with corporates to ensure a safer and more inclusive workplace and conduct routine follow-ups for a minimum of six months to understand employee and employer satisfaction. PeriFerry’s collaboration with ANZ Bank to create a residential corporate training programme named REVIVE is helping the platform to employ multiple candidates at once, which otherwise they could just place a single individual.

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According to an economics professor, Lee Badgett from the University of Massachusetts India has been losing as much as 1.4 percent of its national output because of the discriminatory law Section 377.

Why is PeriFerry Doing this?

The transgender community has been subjected to prolonged ostracism due to the appearance that denied them jobs and kept them away from living a respectable life. Neelam Jain in a conversation with a transgender named ‘Uma’ realised the ill-treatment the individuals face that challenged their very existence as human beings in society. Observing this, Neelam sensed there are hardly any organisations for the LGBTQIA+ community that actively work towards upskilling and uplifting their socio-economic conditions.

What was the Response When PeriFerry began?

When PeriFerry began, the response was cold as the community has been exposed to years of discrimination and was exploited in so many cruel ways by different people and organisations. PeriFerry took almost 1.5 year to instill trust and build rapport with the community.

As the company plans to expand in different geographies, it will require understanding the behaviourial traits of trans communities of different regions. For instance- the trans community of north India differs in nature from the south.

What is the Response Now?

PeriFerry to date has upskilled more than 330 transgenders, employed more than 190 employees in reputed organisations like Wipro, ANZ, Bosch, Accenture, Sodexo, Bayer, and The Body Shop, etc. It has sensitised over 22000 corporates as well.

Learnings from PeriFerry

Startups like PeriFerry are one of a kind in India. While there are many players in the job provider sector, none of them have thought to address the employment needs of trans community individuals.

One of the major takeaways from PeriFerry is that it took to serve a community that people consider as inferior. Therefore, there was a high probability of this start-up failing as the social stigma ingrained in us regarding these individuals would not have welcomed their presence in the workforce. But it succeeded in bridging the gap by training the trans individuals with the right skills by doing in-depth research of the employment problems faced by these individuals and understanding the requirements of corporations.

When social start-ups like PeriFerry step ahead to upskill transgenders to make them corporate ready, it also encourages bigger organisations to believe in their competencies and hire them more.

Scope and Opportunity of Social Entrepreneurship

India is a populous country of 1.4 billion out of which many are devoid of essentials- food, access to clean water, electricity, education, and employment.

The scope of social entrepreneurship in India holds immense potential as yet a large fraction of the population in India remains unemployed and less educated. Lack of skills and training resources is what keeps them away from being employed.

A majority of start-ups in India hire only educated individuals for their business benefits where there are a few start-ups that anticipate the potential of the underserved sector by developing inspiring and innovative solutions to create a stable level of employment and change the system.

Indian government’s flagship projects like The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) aim to foster the culture of entrepreneurship at several universities and NGOs to facilitate the birth of social start-ups or entrepreneurship to emerge as job creators at every state and sector of the country.

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5 Ways to Prioritise LGBT Inclusion to Your Hiring

DU Desk — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 09:41:54 +0000

Over the decades, India as a nation, has come a long way in terms of accepting and incorporating the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community into our society. In recent years this has translated well into workplace inclusion for companies big and small. In fact, it has become a vital part of how a company is perceived in the public eye in terms of workplace ethics.

Ways in which you can prioritise LGBT inclusion in your hiring process:

1. Show Your Pride – Be Loud and Clear

Show your company’s support for the fight for inclusion and the LGBT community, take it a step further and build a very blatant and publicly visible image for the company that shows your commitment to people of different gender identities. Participate or even sponsor events as part of Pride Month, get out into the community and initiate awareness campaigns. Whatever the course of action, remember that celebrating and advocating for the LGBT community does not have to be restricted to just Pride Month.

2. Make the Message Ring Clear: No Discrimination Whatsoever

Make it clear and well-heard that, as a company there is no discrimination or preferential bias towards those of a different sexual orientation. Establish strict anti-discrimination policies within the company and ensure that all your employees and staff know that there is zero-tolerance for any such behaviour. Provide all staff and management with educational and diversity training on a regular basis.

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It is crucial to consider both the existing employees as well as new employees from the LGBT community when making sure that an inclusive work environment is created.

3. Be Proactive in LGBT Recruitment

Even if you state clearly that the company hires without any bias to gender identity or the LGBT community, that does not necessarily mean you will attract the diversity you are aiming for. Expand your recruitment efforts beyond your immediate network to local community job boards, job fairs, schools and universities. Go as far as to get in direct contact with members of the LGBT community to help spread the word. Get in touch with event organising like Pride Circle, an organization founded in 2017 to promote the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and intersex people in the workforce.

4. Make LGBT Inclusion Part of the Brand’s Mission

Re-orient your brand’s mission to be inclusive of the LGBT community. Beyond just words on a page that state inclusivity, display that inclusion to candidates. Many companies have taken to redo their logos to display the Pride Flag or rebrand their advertisements in favour of LGBT support. The point is to physically display your support as opposed to just words on a page.

5. Don’t Forget to Consider Your Existing Internal Team

Keep in mind that for many of your existing employees, especially in the Indian context, it might be the very first time that they interact with members of the LGBT community. Give them the sensitivity training they need in order to ensure that they do not inadvertently offend someone of a different gender orientation. Reach out to LGBT support organisations to help you in this awareness-building process. Something as simple as addressing a person the right way, for example, goes a long way.

An LGBT Friendly India: A Nation on the Move to Progress

The LGBT acts in India have witnessed a major overhaul over the past few years. One of the landmark changes that happened took place in September of 2018 when the Supreme Court came to a historical verdict by decriminalising homosexuality by partially striking down Section 377 of IPC. Even as recent as 2019, The Parliament passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, which has its own shares of pros and cons as it provides the protection of Transgender rights but prevents the self-determination of oneself as Transgender. While these new acts are far from perfect, they do set a precedent for a new wave of thinking, and are a positive indication of change on the horizon.

As the world watched, the second oldest High Court of India – Madras High Court – gave a loud and clear message of upholding the rights of people of the LGBT community in the case of Sushma Vs. Commissioner of Police, Greater Chennai and others on June 7, 2021. The landmark decision came after a Lesbian couple from Madhurai, eloped to Chennai to seek protection from their disapproving parents and harassment from the police with whom the parents has registered an FIR.

Some of the major highlights of the case were:

The High Court asked the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) to enlist the aid of NGOs and community-based groups to aid in these LGBT community issues.

The Court ordered sensitivity programmes to be conducted for police and prison authorities, district and state legal service authorities, officials in the judiciary, physical and mental health professionals, education institutions, health work, public or private institutions as well as parents of people from LGBTQIA+ community.

The High Court also ordered the Union government to prohibit and take action against any and all attempts to ‘medically cure’ or change the sexual orientation of people of the LGBT community.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh made it abundantly clear that in any event where such FIRs are filed against people of the LGBT community when they elope and given that they are legal adults, no action is to be taken against them and that there should be no harassment from the authorities.

The High Court also ordered for changes to be made in short-stay homes, Anganwadi shelters, and “garima greh” (a shelter home for transgender persons) for any member of the LGBT community, who require shelter.

Above all, what makes this such a historical move is that Justice N Anand Venkatesh, moved for all parties involved in the case, including himself to be thoroughly briefed, educated and counselled by psychologist and LGBT community members to better understand same-sex relations before he passed a verdict. He was quoted as saying, “I have no hesitation in accepting that I too belong to the majority of commoners who are yet to comprehend homosexuality completely. Ignorance is no justification for normalising any form of discrimination…”

For a 23-year-old writing on this topic makes me proud of the paramount Indian judiciary system. It is ruling such as these, which proves India’s acceptance of the Westminster model of governing a state works; continuing the faith in the Indian judiciary.

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