Mumbai get ready for India's first and only LGBT community powered cab service!

With India's first and only LGBT community powered radio cab service 'Wings Rainbow' being launched jointly by Humsafar Trust and Wings Travel, members from the community will soon join Mumbai’s cabbies to ferry you across the city.

Explaining the concept which could see the first batch of five drivers (two transgenders and three gay men) commandeering cabs in the next three months, Director (Programs), The Humsafar Trust, Pallav Patankar told dna, “The Supreme Court’s 2014 NALSA judgement paved the way for the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, which addresses both livelihood and issues of education, employment and housing aimed at reducing the 'otherness' of the community.”

According to him, since the judgment, there has been a spate of queries by corporates who approach Humsafar to hire members of the LGBT community.

Pallav Patankar

We found that there is a great need for capacity building among the community members which will improve their chances in the job market. We also wanted to help them explore avenues that went beyond the stereotypical - of fashion, beauty and entertainment.”

Patankar hoped that this first batch will encourage more members of the hijra and transgender community to come forward to take advantage of the programme.

While the organisation had begun training for members of the community in computer, language and etiquette skills, they were approached by Wings Travel Management Private Limited. 

Arun Kharat CEO

We are looking for drivers with good people skills and integrity. We approached Humsafar with the hope of finding such drivers.”

Among the first five trainees is a 28-year-old transgender who said, “We were at first a bit awkward about dressing up in trousers and shirts. But when we were told that we could drive around formally draped in a sari, we were comfortable.” Lauding the efforts, she said, “Only when livelihood issues are resolved will our community really come out of the poor condition it is trapped in.”

While welcoming what he called “the first steps toward comprehensive inclusion,” pioneering gay rights activist Ashok Row Kavi also warned, “Already there are so many negative prejudices about the community. Every move by the first few drivers will obviously come under the lens. They will hence need to be very careful about how they conduct themselves.”