Bihar shelter homes may have transgender security guards

State-funded shelter homes for women and children in Bihar may get transgender security guards as the government has instructed the authorities to prefer them during recruitment, an official said today.

The instruction followed allegations of sexual exploitation of inmates in some of the state's shelter homes in the recent past.

Social Welfare Department Principal Secretary Atul Prasad has mooted the idea at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's weekly public interaction programme "Lok Samvad" earlier this week in response to a request for opening employment avenues for the transgender community.

"Accordingly, instructions are issued to the NGOs running these shelter homes, that henceforth priority be accorded to candidates from the transgender community while recruiting security guards," Prasad told PTI.

He cited the recent rape of a mentally challenged young woman allegedly by a security guard of a short stay home in Saran district and sexual exploitation of girls at a shelter in Muzaffarpur in June.

"We hold the view that transgender security guards were less likely to indulge in such crimes compared to their male counterparts," Prasad said.

He said this move would provide the community members with a respectable source of livelihood and bring them into the social mainstream.

"We have also ordered a survey to ascertain the number of transgender people in Bihar besides setting up an office for the Transgender Welfare Board," Prasad added.

The Board's member Reshma Prasad, who had raised the issue of transgender community before the chief minister on Monday, expressed happiness with the move.

"There are more than 100 shelter homes in the state. According to a UNDP survey, the transgender community in Bihar is 40,000-strong. With a number of people among us getting an opportunity to serve the society in a constructive manner, we can look forward to getting more respectability," she told a news channel.