Park Street: Anuradha Sarkar, 21, was barely in her teens when she was sent off to Bihar to dance at weddings and other functions. Five years of physical and mental abuse later, the transgender person returned to the city but continues to face discrimination everywhere.

Anuradha was among five transgender people attending a three-month tailoring workshop at the Park Street store of a leading sewing machine company on Monday.

The project is a collaboration between Singer and the non-profit Association of Transgender/Hijra in Bengal (ATHB).

Participants at the workshop will be taught about various kinds of fabric and the nuances of cutting and stitching. "They will learn how to incorporate design elements and do customised tailoring," said Rakhi Adhikari, a trainer with the company.

The company has provided five automatic zig-zag sewing machines for the project. Each machine costs around Rs 12,000 and has more than 25 functions, including built-in stitch patterns.

"Once the training is over, there will be a fashion show where transgender people and acid-attack survivors will walk the ramp in apparel made by the participants," said Ranjita Sinha, who runs the transgender association.

Sinha, a transgender woman herself, is also a member of the state transgender development board and works towards bringing transwomen and transmen into the mainstream.

There are more than a 100 tailoring shops recognised by Singer across the state. Around 70 of them are in Calcutta and on its fringes.

"After completing the training, the participants can work at these institutes. In the long run, they can work elsewhere or open their own tailoring shop," said Saurav Chatterjee, senior area sales manager, Singer.

The transgenders' association was formed in 2015. "But it has done almost nothing to create sustainable livelihoods for transgender people. Employment-generation programmes like these are important because financial autonomy is the key to social independence," Sinha told Metro.

Sinha hopes the training will enable the participants to have a steady source of income.

Another participant, Sreya Karmakar, 26, dances at a bar in central Calcutta.

"I want to give it up if I have a steady income. I want to open my boutique some day," she said.