Murphy is the name. Tall. Slim. Male voice. Hair tied in a bun always. Lipstick, of course. In summer, dark goggles. A lady's vanity bag hung on the shoulders.
Murphy was my neighbor for 14 long years until I shifted out. I was on the third floor and Murphy was one floor above. We met almost daily and exchanged greetings.
Yes, Murphy was Transgender, living with an extended family, including a few goats, chicken, and a dog on the exclusive terrace flat (barsati).
That was my close encounter with transgenders. Barring my family, other flatmates kept a distance from Murphy. Questions cropped up as to "how can you live in the same building?" type. I ignored such questions.
On long road trips, I came across them at most of the toll plazas where they beseech every single car occupant for "help". Men had curious looks and or some lewd comments while women rolled up car windows fearing as if they were tsunami. Truck drivers by and large gave a few rupees.
Again, whenever I travel in Chennai suburban trains, they board seeking alms. At times, passengers feel peeved and raise alarm warranting police intervention.
They are part of our society. Still, they are not because the majority of us have not accepted them as fellow passengers on Planet Earth.
Denied of normal life, ostracised by society, and bereft of a decent livelihood, they are compelled to beg. Legislating to accept their gender in addition to male and female is fine. But what matters is action on the ground. That's precise, Ashok Leyland is attempting.'
The credit, on the ground, goes to Mohammed Ali, National Head of Driver Training at the Hinduja group company. Talking to this correspondent over the phone, Ali said that during an interaction with his human resource head in the Chennai headquarters of India's number two trucking company, the topic of roping in transgenders cropped up.
"A few years ago, we did train one transgender but that person did not pursue after getting the driving license and we lost track. So, we have to start afresh," he avers.
Where there is a will, there is a way. Tamilnadu perhaps has the unique distinction of holding Asia's biggest festival to celebrate transgenders. It runs for 18 days where transgenders congregate to get married symbolically with fun and frolic and on the last day, embrace widowhood.
Transgenders marginally by society and deprived any meaningful livelihood resort to begging and prostitution. That's where the Ashok Leyland initiative to skill them as drivers are laudable.
Over years, I keep requests for women drivers for buses and trucks from CSR-serious corporate. How far this Leyland move will be worth watching.
Of the three out of eight transgender who has undergone training, certified, and received the authentic Driving License is Manisha Agarwal, a qualified MCA. "This is a good opportunity," Manisha exclaims during a telephonic chat with this writer. Not to be ignored is her assertion that no job was offered though Manisha was considered for Infotech jobs given her qualification.
Ali of Leyland, who conceived and executed the project, concedes that the reception to absorb transgender as drivers are mixed. "It is early days," he adds. Meanwhile, he managed to get a job opening for one of the eight Transgender drivers in the industrial town of Hosur, bordering Karnataka.
Suresh Babu, heading the Driver Training Institute at Namakkal and who did the spadework to roll out this initiative is confident of winning over the heart of transgender to join the mainstream via Leyland. Cleverly, he made the first batch of transgender drivers steer through the town roads in Namakkal during training and created an awareness about their new role in society as drivers.
Manisha is hopeful of her peers in the Transgender community would love to embrace driving as a career option. "We have been talking to them about our expeirence in learning a new skill and they are eager," she adds.
To cap it, Ali is hopeful of convincing his top-brass at Leyland to absorb Manisha as one of his institute's trainers at Namakkal.
Are these transgenders ready for pan-India driving? Babu points out that currently they hold LMV driving licenses and at the end of one year on the job training, they will be ready for HMV. Valid point.
What about the linguistic challenge of Hindi outside Tamilnadu? Manisha, a speaker of Hindi thanks to her parentage and upbringing in Mumbai in childhood, says that she is ready.
What about the reception during the training at the institute? "Day one was a bit tough but subsequently, all other male trainees understood us," adds Manisha.
Adds Babu: "The curiosity value was definitely. Appreciation of our move followed. At the local RTO office, these Transgender drivers were found to be 100% well trained."
Ali, meanwhile, is exploring tapping the transgender community in other parts of India where it has driver training schools set up with local government support to add the depleting driving community, particularly in the trucking segment. If not the long haul, at least these third gender, approved by Supreme Court and granted equal status at least on paper, can address the shortage in the last mile delivery.
Congrats, Ashok Leyland!
The writer is author of 10,000 KM on Indian Highways, co-founder of Transport Services P Ltd and Editor of DRIVERS DUNIYA, an English Quarterly & Director-Producer of SAMACHAR SADAK SE, a YouTube weekly program. Reachable at ramesh@konsultramesh.com
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