PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday decided to start registration of transgenders to help the community avail health grant and other facilities, ARY News reported.
Advisor to Chief Minister on Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani chaired a meeting at the CM Secretariat in order to discuss and review progress on the resolution of issues faced by the transgender community.
Additional Secretary Social Welfare said that inclusion of transgender column in the census form is not possible without Bureau of Statistics, but the department can direct all the social welfare district officers for registration of transgender.
The members endorsed his views and decided that the Social Welfare department will publish an advertisement in newspapers asking transgenders to register themselves with the District Officer, Social Welfare department to avail health and other facilities.
They will be required to fill a proforma and attach National Identity Card (if any) and two passport size photos for their registration.
The meeting was informed that a committee will discuss and propose mechanism for provision of health grant under Insaf Card as well as provision of funds by Social Welfare department for treatment of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis.
The committee will comprise of Deputy Secretary Health, Dr. Ayub, Provincial Aid Programme, and the Deputy Secretary and Senior Planning Officer at the Social Welfare department.
The Additional Secretary informed that funds have been allocated for provision of technical and vocational skills in different trades in the PC-I. But the Planning and Development department has observed that such vocational skill be provided by Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TVETA).
Secretary Technical Education informed that skill training will be arranged for the transgender community, separately in any trade but the batch shall comprise at least 20-25 transgender as it would not be feasible for less than the number of students.
The Programme Coordinator Blue Vein and President Transgender Association will provide list of 20-25 transgender for each trade/skill in districts where the required number are available so that training could be arranged.
The meeting was attended by Farah Hamid Khan, Secretary, Industry and Technical Education Department, Mr. Abid Majeed, Secretary Health Department, Mr. Tahir Hassan, Secretary Information Department, Malik Akhtar Hussain Awan, Assistant Advocate General KP, Mr. Adel Shah, Additional Secretary, Social Welfare, Special Education and Women Empowerment department (SW,SE&WED KP), Mr. Nisar Ahmad, Managing Director TVETA, Mr. Muhammad Naeem, Director SW,SE&WE KP, Mr. Qamar Naseem, Programme Coordinator Blue Veins and Farzana Riaz, President Transgender Association.
