INTRODUCTION
Transgender: It is an umbrella term to refer to all people who do not identify
with their assigned gender at birth 
Transgender people are individuals of any age or sex whose appearance,
personal characteristics, or behaviours differ from stereotypes about how men
and women are ‘supposed’ to be. Transgender people have existed in every
culture, race, and class since the story of human life has been recorded.
In India there are a host of socio – cultural groups of transgender people like
hijras/ kinnars, and other transgender identities like – shiv-shaktis, jogtas,
jogappas, Aradhis, Sakhi, etc

India's most recent census conducted the first official count of transgender
people and the result was more than 4,90,000 people.
Problems faced by the Transgender
community
• Discrimination- no access to public spaces, healthcare,
unacceptance of family, unemployment
• lack of educational facilities
• homelessness- families do not accept them
• lack of medical facilities: like HIV care and hygiene,
• depression, hormone pill abuse, tobacco and alcohol abuse
• problems related to marriage and adoption.

A 2007 study showed the percentage of Hijras who reported:

forced sex is 46%; physical abuse is 44%; verbal abuse is 56%;
blackmail for money is 31%; and threat to life is 24%.
Transgender persons face a variety of social security issues.
Since most Hijras run away or evicted from home, they do
not
expect support from their biological family in the long run.
Subsequently, they face a lot of challenges especially when
they
are not in a position to earn (or has decreased earning
capacity)
due to health concerns, lack of employment opportunities, or
old
age. . Some of the important issues and concerns faced by
them in relation to social security measures are given below:
 Lack of Livelihood
 Lack of welfare schemes and barriers to use existing
schemes
 Lack of access to life and health insurance schemes
Hardships for a trans person
If you ask people in India what they know about trans people, most of
them only answer that they have seen them begging near traffic signals
and inside trains. This is the harsh reality for many trans people in India.

Being disowned by their own families and harsh treatments from other
people in society leads to their so called ‘bad’ behavior. Lack of access to
education and non-availability of jobs often forces them to take to begging
and prostitution.
It takes a lot of strength for trans people to come to terms with who they
are. Many trans people feel depressed when they are figuring out how to
deal with gender misalignment or dysphoria. Trying to achieve their
dreams in a country where people routinely mock and harass them makes
their life even more difficult. Some people are polite enough and feel
sympathy or pity towards trans people but never do anything helpful for
them. This ignorance and lack of understanding about transgender persons
in Indian society needs to be changed as soon as possible, and it can only
be done by spreading awareness among people and giving proper
education and jobs to trans people, along with laws protecting them from
any kind of harassment.
Why Tamil Nadu is the best state in India for
the Transgender community
Tamil Nadu has one of the highest transgender community population of 22,364.

The Tamil Nadu state in India was the first state to introduce a transgender
(hijra/ aravani) welfare policy. According to the transgender welfare policy
transgender people can access free Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) in the
Government Hospital (only for MTF); free housing program; various
citizenship documents; admission in government colleges with full scholarship
for higher studies; alternative sources of livelihood through formation of selfhelp
groups (for savings) and initiating income-generation programmes (IGP).
Tamil Nadu was also the first state to form a Transgender Welfare Board with
representatives from the transgender community.
 In a pioneering effort to solve the problems faced by transgender people, the
government of Tamil Nadu (a state in South India) established a transgender
welfare board in April 2008.
The Welfare Board comprise of 9 Transgender members, who have been
empowered to look into the various problems, difficulties and
inconvenience faced by the community and based on the inputs received,
the Government have formulated and executed various welfare schemes.
The Board has highlighted some of the welfare schemes so formulated
by the Government of Tamil Nadu:-
1) The Government has created a database on Transgender that would
help to deal with their problems and demands such as housing, ration
card, voter identity, patta, health facility etc.
2) The Government has also issued a Government order for admission of
Transgenders. in Government Schools and Colleges
Why Tirupur?
 Tirupur is a pretty special place, although there is no indication to
the fact that it is one of the largest foreign exchange earners for
India. Or that the biggest global brands get their garments made in
this small city and that the garments made here are sold in the
largest retail stores across the world.
 Tirupur (occasionally spelled Tiruppur) is a city of around 600,000
people in Tamil Nadu. It has a population of over a million in the
urban agglomeration and has been registering an annual growth of
30 per cent since 1998.
 This city exports knitwear worth Rs 11,000 crore (Rs billion) (Rs 110
billion) a year.
 The first stop for any international buyer of Indian garments is
Tirupur. Buyers from 35 countries frequently visit Tirupur. Tirupur
can deliver customised samples in less than 12 hours; half a million
pieces in a matter of days.
• Tirupur, just an hour-and-a-half away from Coimbatore, is one of the largest producers of
cotton knitwear in India.
• In 1996, about 75 per cent of the exports from India and 35 per cent of the cotton knitwear
sold in the Indian market was produced in Tirupur. In the Export Import Policy, 2002-07, the
Centre recognised this, calling Tirupur the ‘Town of Export Excellence’.
• Today, the contribution from Tirupur to India’s cotton knitwear exports is a staggering 90 per
cent. In 2014-15, it contributed to exports worth more than ₹20,000 crore. It is no wonder
that it is often called ‘Dollar City’ as well.
• Tirupur provides employment to thousands of people in and around the town. In fact, people
from far off, drought-prone villages move to Tirupur to work in the cotton factories. At last
count, more than 6 lakh people were employed in the cotton textile industry here.
• The most striking phenomenon in this town is the business culture. In Tirupur, you will not
find integrated factories that do fabrication, processing and stitching. Instead, there are
several small to mid-sized units engaged in one of these activities.
• The presence of a strong network within the community enables outsourcing to be done
skilfully.