Sunday, July 31 2005 11:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Shedding their stereotype image as garishly dressed persons, singing and dancing to eke out a living or soliciting clients in inky darkness of a bylane, a group of transgenders here are gearing to transform themselves into computer savvy and skilled professionals ready to dabble in agro-based business, health care sector and outsourcing ventures.

Sneha, an eunuch and a former sex worker, is currently taking classes in English, feverishly clicking on her mouse learning about new dimensions of computer application and busying herself in the darkroom watching the pictures clicked during her photography classes take new shape and form.

"I have just learnt to speak English," says the kohl-eyed Sneha shyly while putting her grammar lessons to use. Sneha, who operated on a street in Bangalore till a few months ago, soliciting customers for the flesh trade, is today preparing for her board exams and acquiring computer skills.

The change in her life, she says, has come, thanks to the efforts of Elizabeth Jefford, CEO of TG-Voices, a US-based social organisation funded by transgenders and working for the cause of transgenders across the world.

"No one but a transgender can understand another," Elizabeth, a transgender herself, who is currently touring India to create awareness and avenues for employment opportunities for transgenders in the country, said.

TG-Voice networks with the transgenders' international community to provide alternate sources of employment and create self-development programmes for transgenders (an umbrella term for those who feel they are caught up in the wrong gender physically.)