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Video Editor: Varun Sharma, Mohd Ibrahim
Discrimination, lack of healthcare facilities and impact of livelihood have left the trans-community in India worried amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown, imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus.
"A friend of mine, a self-identifying transgender person, went to a pharmacist and asked for a hand sanitizer. The shopkeeper maked fun of her and said, 'How can you people also get the virus?' She was humiliated," says Rudrani Chhetri, who also identifies as a transgender and is a rights activist.
Chhetri's friend, however, is not alone.
The entire community faces discrimination when it comes to basic healthcare and it only gets worse during a pandemic, explains Dr Aqsa Shaikh, a medical practitioner who identifies as a trans-woman.
"When it comes to an outbreak-like situation in terms of coronavirus, when many patients are competing for limited healthcare resources, then naturally, one of the groups that get the least priority, in terms of access and availability of healthcare facilities, would be the transgender groups," says Dr Shaikh.
Yes, because most trans-persons have lower levels of immunity, says Dr Shaikh, who works as an assistant professor at Jamia Hamdad Hospital in New Delhi.
Many community members may be on hormones, while some are also at a higher risk of being HIV+, this makes them more susceptible to contract the coronavirus, she added.
As Bittu Kartik, a faculty member at Ashoka University points out, social distancing by itself is a “privileged idea” and that the concept by itself will leave a lot in the transgender communities without employment.
LGBTQI activist Bappaditya Mukherjee called for separate isolation wards for people belonging to the trans community. He adds that trans-people could die when there is delay in deciding whether they should be put in male or female wards.
Members of the community also feel that it would make a great difference if the coronavirus testing centres declared themselves as ‘trans-friendly.’
As on 9 April, India has over 5,700 people who have tested positive for coronavirus and at least 166 deaths recorded due to the pandemic.
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