Woman Sells Jewellery To Build UP's First Shelter For Transgender Community

A woman in Uttar Pradesh is building a shelter home for the transgender community by selling off her jewellery.  Ranjana Agarwal spent the last five years researching about the adversities being faced by Uttar Pradesh's transgender community. When her research concluded, she sold her jewellery worth rupees two lakh to purchase a piece of land on the outskirts of Bulandshahr’s Khurja town in Uttar Pradesh. It is here that she plans to establish a shelter home.

Agarwal, a 50-year-old researcher and social activist discovered that the transgender community hardly get jobs or a house to live in. "Nobody rents out their home to them and they don't even land a job easily," she told Times of India.

On Wednesday, the foundation stone was placed for the shelter home which would accommodate 20 people from the transgender community, once ready.

Ranjana Agarwal is associated with an NGO named Mahila Kalyan Chetna Samiti, that works for the betterment of the transgender community. According to Agarwal, the shelter home is a "positive step in the right direction" and that "this is the least I could do for them."

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In December last year,  the Ministry of Women and Child Development gave its nod to the country's first home for transgender children, which would be established in Bengaluru. The Hindu reported that two government-run children’s homes reserved for transgender children will be established in Bengaluru Urban, each with a capacity to house 50 children.

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