Special School for Transgenders in Kochi Soon

KOCHI:
Sahaj International School co-founder and transgender activist Vijayaraja Mallikka said that a special school for transgenders will be started at Kochi within one and a half years.
Speaking at the two day National Trainers Summit here, she said that the school started functioning near NGO Quarters, Kakkanad and will be fully functional within one and a half years. Such a school was started following the hardships and harassment she faced in her life, she said.
‘Though it is estimated that there are 25,000 transgenders in Kerala, the exact number will be double. I started writing poetry since the age of 12 and entered into creation of books at the time when the world came to know that I am a transgender’, she said. That motivation gave mor
e strength now to write in three languages. My next goal in life is to introduce 10 to 15 transgender models in Kerala.
When these section of people do not get the freedom even in their life, they enter into sex trade. But, the mentality of considering transgenders as sex workers should change, she said. Though there is a drastic change in the society, still the transgenders are isolated. She urged the society to consider transgenders as one among them in schools also.
According to Vijayaraja Mallikka, she was not able to explain the mental torture suffered from the society since her age of 12. Self confidence in each person will help in overcoming the barriers in the society. Transgenders are engaged in begging and sex trade because the attitude of the society to them is not changed, she added.