Industrialist Anand Mahindra has praised Indian Railways and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for setting up the India’s first and one-of-its-kind tea stall at the Guwahati Railway Station, operated by the transgender community. In a Twiiter post, Mahindra said that the move is transformational and progressive. “This one small, initiative is, in my view, as significant & transformational as your many other progressive projects. Indian railways carries over 8 billion people. And most important, excludes no one. Bravo
@AshwiniVaishnaw,” tweeted Anand Mahindra.
Anand Mahindra was replying to a post by Ashwini Vaishnaw, sharing the photos of the India’s first “Trans Tea Stall” at a railway platform. Earlier, in a first-of-a-kind initiative, a special tea stall was inaugurated at the Guwahati train station by the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) to boost the transgender community. NFR General Manager Anshul Gupta inaugurated the ‘Trans Tea Stall’ at platform number 1 on March 10, 2023.
This one small, initiative is, in my view, as significant & transformational as your many other progressive projects. Indian railways carries over 8 billion people. And most important, excludes no one. Bravo @AshwiniVaishnaw https://t.co/jraMFkwurA
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 14, 2023
Also present at the occasion was Swati Bidhan Baruah, Associate Vice Chairman of the Transgender Welfare Board of Assam. During the inaugural ceremony, Gupta said that the NFR has taken the initiative for the empowerment of transgenders. This initiative is the first-of-a-kind in NFR as well as in the Indian Railways, he added.
“This is also the first such initiative in any Central government organisation and NFR will take more such initiatives in future,” Gupta commented. NFR plans to operate more such Trans Tea Stalls at other railway stations in the region, an official statement mentioned.
