Exclusion Amplified: COVID-19 and the Transgender Community

فوکس

This report was published in 2020 by the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR), Bangalore. It has been written by Vikramaditya Sahai, Aj Agrawal, and Almas Shaikh, Researchers at CLPR. 

The report highlights the “specific vulnerabilities” and everyday problems faced by intersex and transgender people across India during the Covid-19 pandemic. Transgender persons were hit particularly hard due to their engagement in the informal sector and lack of savings, the report states, and also faced discrimination from police personnel. The report uses qualitative interviews and a literature review to study this. The team interviewed eight trans and intersex persons who are well-known activists.

The research findings are divided into six broad headings: Rations and Food Security; Loss of Livelihood and Income; Housing & Shelter; Access to Healthcare; Mental Health; Police brutality, Violence & Stigma. This 26-page is divided into five sections: Introduction (Section 1); Methodology (Section 2); Background (Section 3); Key Findings (Section 4); Recommendations (Section 5).

    مزعومہ حقائق

  1. The Telangana High Court issued an order in response to a petition filed by Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli, ordering the State Government to make sure that food grains, consumables, and medications are readily available to members of the trans community. These items must be provided to members of the trans community at no cost to them and without requiring the presentation of a ration card or white card.

  2. Over 4,000 transgender people in Chikballapur in Karnataka, according to Kiran Nayak, a transgender disabled person, were having financial difficulties during Covid-19 pandemic. The High Court insisted that relief be given, but it had not reached their region when the report was published. 

  3. In Telangana, trans activists testified to malicious propaganda against transgender persons as the harbingers of Covid-19. Their residential areas were marked as “unhygienic and vectors of the virus” – this furthered their isolation in society.

  4. With overloaded hospitals during the pandemic, HIV treatment and testing, hormonal treatment, and gender-affirming treatments for trans people were completely interrupted and not provided. The report also highlights the lack of separate wards for transgender persons in isolation and quarantine centres during the pandemic.

  5. The Government of India invited comments on their Draft Rules to the Transgender Rights (Protection of Persons) Act of 2019 during the Covid-19 lockdown. Multiple petitions (including one by CLPR) challenging this Act are pending before the Supreme Court of India. Despite this, the report highlights the invitation of comments on the draft rules as disregarding the ability of stakeholders to give their inputs during a global pandemic.

  6. The report recommends that the transgender community needs better access to food and rations. Ration cards are not accessible to them, so basic food and nutrition security should be enabled with any government identity card. Healthcare services, including medications for HIV treatment and hormone therapy, must be made available. 


    Focus and Factoids by Saubhagya Srivastava.

    PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.

مصنف

Vikramaditya Sahai, Aj Agrawal, and Almas Shaikh

کاپی رائٹ

Center for Law and Policy Research 

تاریخ اشاعت

2020

ٹیگز

شیئر کریں