Tridhara toilets may debut in other wards

KOLKATA: The Tridhara toilets (toilets for transgenders), which started its journey from ward 112, might be replicated in other wards as well. Anita Kar Majumdar, councillor of the ward, has started talking to her counterparts in wards 111, 114, 100 and 97 so that public toilets in those wards also have units for the third gender.
“They are keen on it.Soon, we will see such facilities in those wards. In fact, we all should be try to include the idea in government schemes,” said Kar Majumdar.
Shobhan Mukherjee, the brain behind the concept, and his friends who publish vernacular monthly magazine ‘Kobi Kolam’, are approaching various agencies so that the idea can be spread across the state. And the efforts have started paying off, with many enquiring about the facility and trying to accept the existence of the third gender. The likes of Radhey Shyam, who mans the toilet complex near the Masterda Surya Sen metro station, have started accepting the change.
“Earlier, we would not see too many transgenders coming to use the public toilets. We would try to avoid those who came. Now, we know they have a right to use this facility and we have no right to stop them,” said Radhey Shyam.
For the community, this was the biggest gift on Raksha Bandhan. As a token of appreciation, members from the community tied rakhi on Mukherjee’s wrist on Monday.
“What bigger and better gift we could have asked on Raksha Bandha. This boy has done what we could not do in years. We are also thankful to the councillor,” said Ranjita Sinha, who heads the Association of Transgenders and Hijaras in Bengal (ATHB).