The city of London has come up with an iconic idea which may just prove to be a game changer in public transportation. Instead of hearing the same old announcements starting with “Ladies and gentlemen..”, people will now be hearing gender neutral greetings like “Hello, everyone..”, much to the joy of the travelers.
Transport For London (shortened to TFL) has taken a brilliant initiative by asking its staff to use gender neutral greetings and as per its executives, this move has been made to feel everybody welcome.
In an environment where we generally see an outlook of negativity and discrimination on the basis of sex and gender, the move of gender neutral greetings comes as a breath of fresh air, spreading a positive message to the locals as well as to the people all over the globe.
This move can also be attributed to months of protests by LGBTQA activists in London, who may just be seeing a small yet effective change through their movement.
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There has been a sharp increase in the number of recognized gender identities, be it the previously known ones pertaining to the trans category or the new ones where individuals identify themselves as people who are neither masculine nor feminine.
In order to recognize and accept them on a global level, a small step of localized benefit in a city as big as London serves as a great example which other countries can definitely follow in order to achieve a larger goal.
Shifting the focus to our own country India, where there is a rather polarized opinion on the concepts of gender identities mostly due to an inherent lack of awareness, a move like London would be rather complex to implement as it will yield negligible effect owing to the ignorance of the people, be it urban or rural.
Sure, our country has grown to be more open and accepting towards varying gender identities (I’ve written an article on the same topic which can be read here) but the need of the hour in our country is to trace the first step, which is nation-wide awareness of multiple gender identities, followed by moves like the London example to initiate a movement which aims at their acceptance.
A systematic approach in our country regarding the concept of gender identities will provide a relatively stable foundation to base a movement on from the grass-root level, which might just be an effective landmark for a brighter and more harmonious future.
Image Credits: Google Images
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http://edtimes.in/2017/04/india-young-people-accepting-towards-different-gender-identities-sexuality/
