LAHORE: The registration process for admissions is going on in Tahafuz Darsgah established for transgender children near Wide Life Park Jallo in Lahore and the classes will start here very soon. Transgender children will be taught here from primary to O level along with various skills while free accommodation will also be provided to transgender children.
Tahakuz Darsgah has been established by the British Curriculum and Accreditation Board (UKCAB) with the assistance of the Punjab Police. Speaking to The Express Tribune, Hamza Atiq, representative of UK CAB and coordinator of Tahafza Darsgah, said Tahafz Darsgah is mainly for transgender children who are not accepted by their families. Three blocks have been built in this school, one block has a school, the second has a vocational center and the third block has a hostel.
Hamza Atiq says that Transgender children up to the age of 18 will be placed in Tahafuz Darsgah, where they will be taught A and Olivul. The teachers selected for this purpose include transgenders. Transgenders who have been fighting for the welfare of their community for a long time have been enlisted as volunteers. Apart from this, the other staff are being trained while the work has started for the registration of transgender children. He expected that classes would start here in the next few weeks.
While Takhuz Darsgah is being praised by the transgender community, they also have some concerns. The most important task is to find transgender children and then convince their parents to enroll their child in this special transgender school.
Neely Rana, a transgender rights activist and guru from Lahore, says that in our society, parents hide the identity of a child until he becomes an adult and his sexual characteristics and habits are not evident. Even if a family comes to know after birth that their child is transgender, they hide its identity for fear of stigmatization in the family and society. Such children are usually revealed as boys. She knows dozens of transgender women who have completed matriculation and higher secondary education as boys.
Neeli Rana says that no parent takes their child out of the house or wants to keep it away from themselves. Place him with other siblings so that he can become like them. Parents separate their child from themselves only when he becomes an adult and his habits and characteristics become clear or a eunuch himself leaves his parents.
He said that from where transgender children will be found for protection education and how a family will send their child to a transgender school. He said, “God willing, this project will be successful, but generally, projects supported by foreign funding and NGOs last only as long as money is available.”
Project volunteer Zanaiya Chaudhry, who is serving as a Vixtam Support Officer at the Punjab Police’s service center, says she suggested to the organizers that the age limit be lifted to 18 to allow for more seniors. A policy should be made to admit old transgenders as well. She said that she is looking for transgender children with the help of community members. Some families have been contacted and are being persuaded to enroll their children in the school.
Zanaia Chaudhry says that she had also suggested that pick-and-drop facility should be provided for transgender children as the school is built in an area that is far from the city and does not have a transgender community. Is. However, the management believes that since a hostel for children has also been built here, pick and drop will not be a problem. Zanaia Chaudhry says that the most important target is the registration of children.
Transgender eyes say it will be difficult to accommodate transgender children in hostels, a transgender child living with a guru cannot be admitted to school without his consent, while transgender children are quick to leave their gurus. Will not be willing.
He said that when a guru makes a eunuch a disciple, apparently his work is called guru-disciple, but behind it there is human trafficking. The Guru buys a young eunuch with a huge sum of money and then the Guru takes a certain share of the disciple’s earnings. When he wants to leave the chela, the guru has to pay all the money with interest that his guru gave to his former guru and then spent on his living, food and drink. Runs in millions, without ending this Guru Chele system, transgender children cannot get freedom.
Some transsexuals say that the transgender name is also used for fame. Transgender women are more likely to receive external funding in the name of autonomy. No matter how independent a transgender becomes or is presented as independent, he/she faces difficulties in practical life. People have a certain type of opinion about them whereby they don’t take transgender people and their issues seriously.
Jannat Ali, another well-known artist and eunuch from Lahore, says that on the one hand, parents do not accept that their child is eunuch, and on the other hand, an eunuch child who lives with his parents is not aware of his gender. He does not tell because he is afraid that if he tells the truth, he will be thrown out of the house and his family will not accept him, so he grows up with lies.
He said that it should happen that transgender children should also study in schools and colleges like normal children and they should be given separate recognition there, but the establishment of a separate school for them is also a good move because when the transgenders will be literate. So instead of begging, dancing and prostitution, they will be able to get a job or learn a skill and start their own business.
This is the first school to be established for the transgender community with the assistance of the Punjab Police, but the claim that it is the first school for transgenders in Lahore is not true. Earlier, schools have been established in different districts of Punjab including Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan including Department of School Education Lahore, but unfortunately these schools are not playing an active role as expected. These schools now have two-hour classes three days a week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while transgenders are given a monthly stipend of 10,000 rupees, due to which transgenders are now coming to these schools to learn skills.
In 2018, the Exploring Future Foundation (EFF), an NGO in Lahore, established the first school for transgenders called The Gender Guardian. EFF head Asif Shehzad says that all the projects that are started for the transgender community are usually funded by the World Bank or foreign NGOs working for the autonomy of the transgender community. Globally, projects for the empowerment of oppressed groups, including women, transgenders, have received a lot of recognition.
Asif Shahzad says that the Punjab government had established schools for transgenders in various districts of Punjab including Lahore under the auspices of the school education department. Jawa School established in Multan was a state of the art school. Where transport facilities were also provided for the transgenders, but due to wrong strategy, those schools could not play an active role.
According to Asif Shahzad, there is a need to understand the psychology of the transgender community. These people cannot come to school for five, six hours every day like normal students. The most difficult task for them is to wake up early in the morning. Of course you start giving monthly stipends to these people, still they cannot come to school like regular students because they earn thousands of rupees per month by themselves.
He said that for this reason we had started the series of teaching away from the traditional method. Instead of teaching them traditional textbooks, they are taught Urdu, English and Mathematics, besides they are given other skills courses including sewing, embroidery, cooking, driving, beautification, fashion designing. They show interest in them and they are also learning this work.
Asif Shahzad while speaking said that unfortunately in our society transgenders are hidden at a young age, parents shy away from telling about their child’s gender even though they know what the society and people will say, such children should not go to school. They are sent away and thus they miss out on education and then grow up either dancing and singing or begging on the streets when they are old.
However, Hamza Ateeq says that the system of traditional gurus and disciples of transgenders cannot be abolished until transgenders are educated and trained from childhood. We will provide a safe environment for these children. Those children will be able to get education according to Oxford syllabus from expert teachers and above all they will get support from Punjab Police. No eunuch guru would have the courage to make a eunuch child his disciple.
He said that when these children grow up in a free environment, they will become useful citizens of the society and will be able to play their role in various fields of life according to their abilities.
