CHINIOT: A police department’s initiative to employ transpeople at Tahaffuz Markaz across the province has changed many lives. Sana Imran is one of them.

“I was born in Mandi Bahauddin as Imran, and my family settled in Karachi as my father was a police officer there,” Sana tells Dawn.

“I attended school till class eight in a boys’ school. However, as soon as I and my family learned I was a transperson, I was forced to leave the house. I went to the house of a ‘guru’ of the trans community in Karachi, where I became Sana Imran.”

The guru engaged her in begging. A group of students helped her in studies and her completion of O-Level examinations as a private student. The guru did not like her studies; however, Sana kept studying as well as begging. The group of students also helped her take admission to a public college in Karachi. She became the first transperson to pass BA from Karachi University in 2014.

Now, Sana is an employee at the Tahaffuz Markaz of the Chiniot police as a victim support officer. The markaz, opened in August, supports trans people and vulnerable segments of society.

There are more than 200 transpeople living in various localities of the district. Controlled by their Gurus from various areas, most of the transpeople were illiterate, without identification, CNIC, and without shelter. Although gurus provided them shelter, they had to pay a heavy price for this.

Earning money through dancing, singing in functions, minting money from their friends and fans, and prostitution are the only choice for them to lead the rest of life in these houses.

District Police officer Chiniot Abdullah Ahmad says the markaz has been established to end the miseries of trans people, enabling them to live a respectable life and adopt decent professions as other genders do. This markaz has so far completed the medical screening of 200 transpeople in Chiniot and administering free medical treatment of those who were found infected with diseases.

Adult Literacy Centres have been established for transpeople in collaboration with the literacy department and district education authorities. The education authority is not only imparting basic education to them but also providing free textbooks and stationary to them. Many of the transpeople who were educated have been getting computer short courses in the police department, and after getting computer education, they will be placed in jobs in various private and government institutes.

A special driving training class has been customized for them in the police driving school where 20 transpeople are getting practical driving training and also in-house lectures on traffic rules, signs, etc.

The markaz was also helping them get their identification as Pakistani, as it was administering the formation of their CNICs and also helping them get assistance from other support programs like BISP, Social protection, and other assistance from government departments.

Kashan Malik has completed his driving training and is now looking for a driving job. Billi Khan, another trans person, says that she had a friend who ran away with her mobile phone and Rs20,000 when she returned after conducting a “dancing function” with him, and he slept in his room.

Tahaffuz Markaz took up her complaint, and after the police approached him, he returned both the mobile and cash as an out-of-court settlement.

Shawania was a resident of Mandi Sheikhan who got education up to matric from a public boys high school in Chiniot. She says that all the transpeople were feeling comfortable after the establishment of Tahafuz Markaz by the police and the posting of one of their fellow as victim support officer.

She said many of the transpeople were fed up with that life and wanted to lead a respectable life in society and adopt any decent profession like other males and females do. But they felt discrimination, bias, and acceptability issues while doing any other job.

The markaz initiatives have enlightened a ray of hope in their community, and it is hoped that many of the trans people in the Chiniot district would be placed in jobs and excel in their careers in the near future.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023