In some progressive news from Kolkata, one seat will be reserved for transgender people in two busses that ply in the Bansdroni-Babughat route. The bus numbers 205 and 205 A -- thirty six of them-- will have this seat reservation. The reserved seat have been given a name too, it's called 'Tridhara', which translates to three sections. In this case, it refers to the third gender.
The move was initiated by Shovon Mukherjee, also known as 'Kolkata's Padman'. The 23-year-old student of Ashutosh College has been distributing sanitary napkins at pay and use toilets in South Kolkata since October 2017. Calling the initiative ‘Project Bandhan’, he buys the sanitary napkins at Rs 2 each from the distributor and places them in cardboard ice cream boxes and installed in pay and use toilets.
Mukherjee now wants to ensure that all busses plying in Kolkata have seats reserved for the transgender community. "I will only feel successful once I can arrange for reserved seats in all buses in the city," he told Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika.
"The Supreme Court may have recognised transgender people as third gender but that's not enough. We still face a lot of discrimination. We often face harassment in public places. We are grateful for this initiative," said Ranjita Singh.
Tapan Banerjee, a member of 'Joint Council of Bus Syndicate', an organisation of the city's bus owners, has said that he is in the fight to ensure a reserved seat for transgender people on all private busses in the city.
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