Since the beginning of the previous financial year, at least ten transgender people have registered as directors of companies with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. This is according to the ministry’s monthly information bulletins on the corporate sector.

The bulletin said that seven transgender people were registered as directors in FY22. The bulletin for May 2022 noted the addition of three more directors. The ministry started putting out gender-based data on company directors from the February 2022 bulletin​.

Of the seven transgender directors registered in FY22, six falls fall in the 31-45 age bracket, while one is between 46 and 60. While two are from Delhi, the others were from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.

“This is a start,” says Mumbai-based transgender entrepreneur Zainab Patel. A development professional, she is on the Pride Business Network Foundation board and runs a one-person company Zainab Innovations Pvt Ltd.

Pride Business Network Foundation has another transgender Simran Sheikh on their director board. “I’m a trans-identified person and my documents are as female. It was easy for us because there was no mismatch in our documents. Had that been the case, things would have been much more difficult,” says Patel. Because not everyone from the transgender community has a document where their gender is mentioned as ‘transgender’, the real numbers could be higher.

But the challenges are high for the members of the community. “There are a lot of data-related challenges. I have all the documents; I can get a Digi sign done and I have a space of my own to register a company. But how many trans people in India can do it? I see it as a major disabling factor for people,” says Patel, emphasising the need to help trans entrepreneurs raise capital to fund their businesses. Patel currently employs four trans people in her business establishment.

We also spoke to Kalki Subramanian, a trans entrepreneur from Pollachi in Tamil Nadu. Kalki registered her company Kalki Creations under the Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in July 2022.

“The registration process wasn’t that difficult, though I still face stereotyped discrimination from people around,” she says, adding, “Gender doesn’t matter when you’re truly confident.” According to a question answered by the MSME Ministry on December 2, 2019, in the Rajya Sabha, five transgender people registered enterprises with the ministry between April 2018 and November 2019.

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