In inspiring progress towards the inclusion of trans-persons in the mainstream workforce of the country, India gets Zoya Khan as the first transgender operator of a Common Service Centre in Gujarat’s Vadodara district. She has been recruited at the CSC office for telemedicine consultation.
“I am thankful that I was chosen to be the first in my community. I am taking this very positively as I would be able to help people in need. Although it is like a challenge, I will work with dedication and prove myself,” Zoya told ANI, expressing her willingness to make use of the opportunity.
“My training is underway but eventually I would like to learn about all the Government schemes and plans to help poor as well as the people of my community”, she added. Zoya’s recruitment is believed to give the transgender community a morale boost amid the difficult times during the corona-lockdown that has rendered many from the community jobless.
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“Common Service Centres (CSC) scheme is one of the mission mode projects under the Digital India Programme…It is a pan-India network catering to the regional, geographic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of the country, thus enabling the Government’s mandate of a socially, financially and digitally inclusive society”, the e-governance website, under the Government of India defines.
The scheme is meant to reach out to the population of rural and remote areas for accessing “essential public utility services, social welfare schemes, healthcare, financial, education and agriculture services”.
The telemedicine services under the schemes are for the patients from the remote areas to get medical consultation through video calling from their nearest health facility. Previously, the scheme’s recruitment policy was only open for male and female genders.
“Zoya Khan is India’s first transgender operator of Common Service Centre from Vadodara district of Gujarat. She has started CSC works with Telemedicine consultation. Her vision is to support the transgender community in making them digitally literate & give them better opportunities”, Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took to Twitter praising Zoya for her accomplishment.
Zoya Khan is India’s first transgender operator of Common Service Centre from Vadodara district of Gujarat. She has started CSC work with Tele medicine consultation. Her vision is to support transgender community in making them digitally literate & give them better opportunities. pic.twitter.com/L0P9fnF2JT
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) July 4, 2020
“As the country is changing, I thought of involving a transgender to be a Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) in CSC with the support of my colleagues. Zoya, being the first in her community would be involved in the banking and education sectors,” said District Manager of CSC Vadodara, Asif Khan Pathan mentioning the significance of her recruitment. “There are over 3.5 lakh Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) under the CSC scheme of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology across India. These VLEs work in 300 domains like education, health, etc.,” he further added.
Weeks after the Ministry of Home Affairs asking for views of concerned authorities over the recruitment of transgender people in the central armed forces as assistant commandants, the news of Zoya’s appointment comes as a positive move.
Among the other trailblazing achievements of the members of the community are the appointments of K Prithika Yashini and Joyita Mondal as a sub-inspector in a Tamil Nadu district and a judge in Lok Adalat, respectively in 2017. In the same year, the Kochi Metro Rail Limited in Kerala had employed 23 transgenders.
Recently in November 2019, the district administration of Odisha’s Malkangiri recruited five transgender persons as security guards at the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH). On June 24 of this year, Noida’s Sector 50 metro station of the Aqua Line was declared to be renamed as ‘Rainbow Station’.
Amid the depressing times of the pandemic when many are at the brink of losing their jobs and are already unemployed, the employment opportunities for the sexual minorities of the country appear as a ray of hope.
Though these initiatives towards the inclusion of the community into the mainstream workforce of the country are commendable, there remains a long road ahead. All we can do is to be more supportive and encouraging of such moves waiting for many more to come in the future.