Pakistan opens separate schools for transgenders

Members of the transgender communityin Pakistan calling for rights

By Nasir Aijaz
The AsiaN Representative

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Punjab province will open separate schools for transgender community in selected cities and the first ever such school will start functioning from Wednesday July 7 in Multan, a historic and one of the biggest cities of the province, situated in its southern part.

Punjab’s Education Minister Dr. Murad Raas announced the opening of separate schools for transgender community on Tuesday during an inaugural ceremony of an Afternoon School in Lahore, the provincial capital, and also on Twitter.

“The government will establish separate schools for the transgender community in selected cities of the province and the first of its kind will be established in Multan,” the minister said.

“The government has decided not to enroll transgender persons in regular schools due to reservations regarding the behavior of other students.”

The attitude of students of regular schools could be insulting towards transgender community members, which is why separate schools should be set up for them, he added.

“We were asked why transgender community members are not encouraged to join regular schools. If they go to regular schools then children who do not understand the emotional side of it could hurt them by poking fun at them.”

Although the previous governments had fixed job quota for transgender community, the minister claimed that no previous governments had thought about the welfare and provision of education and jobs to the transgender community.

Dr. Murad said that they would be opening more schools for the community in other parts of the province and would also provide them with job opportunities.

In 2018, Pakistan’s parliament recognized the transgender community as third gender, giving them fundamental rights including the right to vote and choose their gender on official documents.

According to census figures, the estimated population of transgender people in Pakistan is around 300,000; however, the actual number could be higher.

Certain media reports suggest that the Punjab government had already established a school for transgender persons in Lodhran city in 2019 while a religious seminary was established for them in December 2020.

Sindh province too has established four centers under its Social Welfare Department for imparting informal education, religious education and music training to the members of transgender community.

Such Centers have been opened in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur, the big cities of Sindh province. The social welfare department has started establishing contacts with transgender persons to motivate them for getting registered and attending the classes.

In Pakistan, the majority of transgender persons could be seen begging at the busy roundabouts of cities and visiting door to door in residential areas for alms while the young transgender persons are said to be sex workers.

The transgender community members have their strong organizations at provincial and national level and they used to stage demonstrations for their rights. The provincial governments have started establishing schools and training centers following the country’s apex court’s orders in a petition filed by the transgender community.  In 2009, Pakistan’s Supreme Court had called on all provincial governments to recognize the rights of transgender people.

Marvia Malik

A very few transgender persons have got the opportunities to lead a respectable life in Pakistan. Some of them had joined the government jobs. One Marvia Malik is the newsreader and media figure. She became the first openly transgender newscaster to appear on a Pakistani television channel when she made her debut in 2018.

In 2020, Pink News, a UK-based online magazine declared Pakistani transgender Aisha Mughal as one of the most successful transgenders worldwide for the year. рефинансирование онлайн