The transgender community was one of the worst hit during the pandemic. Not only did members struggle with loss of income, they also faced discrimination and stigma that jeopardised access to relief and healthcare. But the community organised relief work and helped several vulnerable groups, including their own. These were some of the findings of a report published by the Alternative Law Forum (ALF)
In their report, ‘Asserting Dignity in Times of COVID’, authors Rumi Harish and Sunil Mohan documented how the transgender community was mostly left out of relief measures initially. They were included after the community impleaded in a PIL petition before the High Court in April 2020. But even with this, the community faced several problems in accessing relief. The report found that one of the main hurdles was the insistence of ID proof, both by government and private relief workers, which most transgender persons did not have. Even when they took up relief initiatives, they were harassed and their movement severely restricted by the police during lockdown, the report said.
Meanwhile, People Living with HIV in the community had their ART treatment cycles disrupted and faced several hurdles in accessing medicines. The lockdown pushed them into isolation, forcing them to spend time with their families who may not be sympathetic to them, causing mental health issues, as per the report.
“The State must actively move away from this discriminatory patriarchal notion of family and accept the alternative setup of families that gender sexual minority and transgender groups function in, especially for schemes and policies that are made for their welfare,” the report recommended.
The community was also baselessly targeted for “spreading the virus”. Post the unlock, the systematic discrimination the transgender community has only increased, the report documented.
