Dessy Sagita – A senior legislator from the moderate Islamic National Mandate Party, or PAN, said he wanted to ensure that as many as 14 jobs out of every 100 are allocated to members of Indonesia's large transgender community.

"If [the government] can allocate one out every 100 jobs for people with disabilities, then it should also apply the same rule for transgender men and women," Rustam Effendy told a delegation of transgenders at the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Rustam is proposing a 14 percent job allocation ratio for the transgender community.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno had promised to issue a regulation that would allow transgenders to work in both the formal and informal sectors, Rustam said.

"We will keep on nagging the government until it sticks to its promise," he said.

The legislator said he believed transgender workers would be able to make a significant impact in the textile and garment industry. I have just returned from India where there are many transgender factory workers," he said. "Why can't we do that here?"

Rustam, a member of House of Representatives' Commission IX, which oversees health and social issues, said the commission could urge the government to push for legislation that would specify a quota for transgender employees in every company.

The comments were made after the commission received members of Indonesia's transgender community on Thursday. They arrived at the House to protest the discrimination and violence they said they endured on a daily basis in the country.

Transgenders from 23 provinces are gathering in Bogor, West Java Province, from Sunday to Friday to come up with an approach toward improving their social and legal standing and to seek an end to discrimination.