Wings Travels Management Ltd, along with Humsafar Trust, a non-profit organization that works for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) issues has started a pan-India program, beginning with Mumbai where transgender persons are being trained to drive radio cabs. Currently, there are five members of the community undergoing training to drive radio cabs, Wings and Humsafar stated at a press conference.

Arun Kharat, founder-director of Wings Travels and Management (India) said, "We want to ensure that the LGBT community in India enjoys the same rights and livelihood opportunities in India as its counterparts in the West." "We have openings for nearly 1,500 LGBT members in Mumbai under the program. We are aiming to turn it a pan-India scheme," he said.

"Judgments and laws are passed, but they are limited only to conversations. This initiative is a way to turn 'intellectualisation' into reality," said Pallav Patankar, program director at Humsafar Trust.

“It will be at least a year till the driver’s license is given, but the training has started and in the end, it is all about first training them as drivers and finally enabling them to become small entrepreneurs by owning their cabs.” Pallav Patankar of Humsafar Trust stated, that, “Transgenders are often told to go and do some work, but opportunities are few and far between. Inclusiveness and changing mindsets remain mere intellectualizations, if we do not change the situation on the ground.”

"We want to show the society that we are capable of more than just sex work and begging. However, it will take some time to change people's minds," said a transgender, who has been associated with Humsafar for 16 years and is part of the radio cab pilot project.

Some of them, had been employed earlier, but did face harassment in the guise of veiled comments and barbs at the workplace. Sanjeevani S, a transgender who worked in an imports-exports firm spoke about, how male co-workers would throw a flying kiss at her, across the room in the workplace or leer at her. Yet, she said spiritedly “today, I see women driving rickshaws, cabs and even bus conductors. I think one day I will not just drive a cab, but a train.”

Suraj Thakur and Ankit Trivedi of the community claimed that at an earlier workplace, they felt the sting of comments. “During lunch at the workplace, colleagues would casually comment, today the food has a lot of ‘gud’ (a derogatory term for a homosexual man) or that it is very ‘meetha’ (sweet).”

The app will have a rainbow button for those who want this service. There may be problems and road bumps, this is after all a path breaking initiative, but one could not help cheering at a brave attempt, which has just got rolling.

By Premji