July 6, 2021 ISLAMABAD: For the first time ever in Pakistan, the government of Punjab has initiated a ‘Transeducation’ pilot project for imparting education to the transgender community, and the project is expected to be launched on July 7. The Education Department, south Punjab, Government of the Punjab, has decided to attend to this hitherto important yet ignored issue. Transeducation is being launched in Multan, whereby transgenders would be given formal education in evening classes at public sector schools by resorting to the Accelerated Learning Programme to compensate for the lost schooling in the first phase, and to formal schooling in the second. And gradually transgenders would be shifted to regular and age-appropriates classes/ schools. Efforts are being put in place as transgenders are one of the most marginalised segments of society in Pakistan. They are shunned by their own families and are left with no loved-ones from the day they are born. They have to face physical, sexual and psychological exploitation throughout their lives. Doors of formal education and consequently decent livelihood, therefore, remain shut on them. The pilot project is expected to be taken up in whole Punjab once successfully executed in Multan. Punjab EducationMinister Murad Raas, while talking to The News, said: “We will extend the project to Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, and with the passage of time, to entire Punjab.” He said the concept of degrading the transgender community must come to an end and steps should be taken to provide them with a healthy, respectable environment.