Wings Rainbow, a radio taxi service by the Mumbai LGBT community tries to bring them to mainstream

Wednesday brought a slice of very good news for the LGBT community in Mumbai, and perhaps across the country, when a radio taxi service in the city launched a service for the community. The Hindu reports that Wings Rainbow, an initiative by Wings Travels and Humsafar Trust, will begin functioning in 2017, and five volunteers from the LGBT community have already signed up for it. [caption id=“attachment_2593158” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] This initiative comes as a silver lining for a community, that has so far been, and still continues to be marginalised and looked upon with a certain amount of scorn. Those who sign up for this will go through a training of 12 months for an All-India Driver’s Licence and get training for “customer etiquette”. Arun Kharat, founder-director of Wings Travels and Management (India), was quoted by The Hindu as saying, “We want to ensure that the LGBT community in India enjoys the same rights and livelihood opportunities in India as its counterparts in the West.” Indeed, this initiative will help people from the LGBT community earn a living and mingle with the society from which they have so far been ostracised. Perhaps, interacting with people for the community may help people with certain prejudices change their minds.