Anam Prem

Messengers of all religions like Mahavira, Prophet Mohammed, have preached the message of Love and humanity. Hence on Mahavir jayanti Day, we started with an inter-faith prayer meet for the hijra or transgender community in 2005. Love can transcend all barriers of religion, gender, sex, class, etc, and an initiative of Love for hijra community Anandi Anand Gade – Joy for all, took shape. Hijra community has been shadowed with stigma, discrimination, and ostracism from society since ages. This initiative aims to ‘reach out’ to the community, through ‘family meets’ – where hijra community and host families from the ‘mainstream’ society share personal spaces in their home. With a vision for an inclusive society this experiment of love has helped to change perspectives towards this community, to know them beyond their gender, to break barriers of stigma and stereotype.

This initiative also seeks to create a platform for self-empowerment and entrepreneurship for this community, by identifying their talents and skills, and providing forward linkages in the ‘mainstream’ to utilize them for self – empowerment of this community. Humble efforts of skilling them with agarbatti making, artificial flower making, gift article making, catering, car cleaning, have been carried out since 2012, which culminated into the Trans Empowerment Mela 2016, the first of its kind, empowerment mela for the hijra and transgender community.