Pune: They are entrepreneurs hailing from transgender community or Transpreneurs and they are rubbing shoulder with their peers hailing from other walks of life. The only thing they are looking for is acceptance from society in the forms of love and empathy. DY Patil International University (DYPIU) celebrated the ‘Trans and Hijra Empowerment Initiative’ (THEI) event on Friday in collaboration with the Anam Prem Parivar.
The THEI-22 event consisted of two parallel events - the Let's Talk event and the COCOON workshop. The 'Let's Talk' event welcomed 10 Trans and Hijra guests coming from various states of India to share their individual stories as 'Human Books,' a one of a kind concept
that originated from Denmark. The mentee session for the COCOON (Connections, Collaboration and Networking) workshop was held with the five Trans entrepreneurs – ‘Transpreneurs’ and their mentors from various industries where they are learning to build an enterprise.
Vice Chancellor of DYPIU Prof Prabhat Ranjan welcomed and felicitated the guests from Anam Prem Parivar, the transgender Human Books and the Transpreneurs. Urmi Jadhav, a transwoman activist hailing from Maharashtra, working with Humsafar Trust, a mother trust
working for LGBTQ+ rights since 22 years, explained to the attendees and students present in the event the concept of gender identity, sexual orientation, the Gender Umbrella for including all the queer people and also how the legal recognition of the transgender persons
in India has changed timely.
During the COCOON workshop, the Transpreneurs were trained in the basics of finance for the small businesses. The industrial experts who came as mentors for the COCOON initiative also heard individual enterprise proposals of the Transpreneurs and gave their inputs for improvement and further planning. The mentoring and handholding under the COCOON will continue beyond the event as well. Students and faculty members from various schools of the University participated in the ‘Let's Talk’ session and heard the stories of 'Human
Books.' All the 10 transgender persons who spoke as Human Books narrated their life stories in person to the participants who came for their individual sessions.
Most participant students and faculty members shared that they got completely engrossed in the Human Book stories and understood the Trans and Hijra perspective so closely for the first time in their lives. They engaged in detailed discussions and had the opportunity to respectfully ask questions they had for the 'Human Books.' Both Human Books and the participants continued their discussions beyond these sessions as social differences were getting dismantled and human connections were being built in the noble initiative.
Dr Abhinita Daiya, a management faculty of the University and the main organizer of the event, shared that DYPIU and Anam Prem Parivar had collaborated about a year ago since when she and DYPIU have been regularly assisting the COCOON initiative. The logos for the enterprises of all the five Transpreneurs, which were to be released on April 9 in a mela of THEI 22, were also designed by a DYPIU student of the management school, Yuga Lodha. Dr Neera Kumari, another DYPIU faculty and event co-organizer, highlighted the need for such exposure to the university students and staff for creating a gender inclusive educational environment for the students.
The event concluded on a successful note where the participating students and faculty members were left with empathy, love and acceptance towards the Trans and Hijra community. The Anam Prem Parivar including all the Human Books and Transpreneurs also
appreciated the opportunity and their experience at DYPIU. /BI/
