Skip to main content

Extreme discrimination, harassment amidst pandemic: New transgender law failure?

By Adithi Das*
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused hardships among people, and even more so, for the most marginalised groups in the society. At a time when even the more privileged groups began scouring stores for food and medicines, one could realize the plight of the transgender community seeking rations and medicines only to face discrimination and harassment.
As always, shopkeepers sent them away saying the virus cannot get to them. Trans persons are often humiliated when they ask for basic health services in the country, and this has gotten worse during the lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the virus.
As the country went under lockdown, the city-dwelling, college-educated, office-going workforces began switching to the virtual modes of working, and the country saw an unprecedented spike in the sale and use of remote working tools. But when one looks at the possibility of remote work for transsexual persons, one would be dismayed and appalled at the number of possibilities that really exist for the community.
Most trans-persons being engaged in begging and sex work have experienced extreme adversity and complete loss of livelihoods during the lockdown, says Pushpa Achanta of the Solidarity Foundation, an NGO that works with sex workers and sexual minorities in Bangalore.
Even worse outcomes of the lockdown have been when trans persons availing HRT drugs during transitioning and other minorities availing ART medicines for HIV treatment were denied access to these very essential commodities, notwithstanding the fact that the prices of these have skyrocketed since the early 2000s and become prohibitively high during the lockdown.
Perhaps, this is the result of lack of affirmative action in the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. The Act has been continually criticised and challenged by activists and lawyers for the numerous discriminatory clauses it contains which are violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution such as: 
  • For transgender persons to change their gender, the Transgender Persons Act enforces the need for a Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) in order to change their gender identity to their preferred gender of either male or female. Moreover, the validity of the SRS is decided by the District Magistrate.
  • The Act places restriction on movement with regard to trans persons in separating from their parents and allowing a person to move out only through an order of ‘a competent court’. This has led to division of the community on class lines with only those being able to access the court even having a chance at separating from their family. With widespread discrimination and violence that they face from their immediate family and relatives, moving out of the family has been the need of a large number of trans persons. 
  • Section 18(d)- This section criminalizes violence against transgender persons, but has been reproduced without any changes from previous drafts. In fact, any kind of violence, as much as that which would endanger a trans person’s life is punished by a term of a maximum of 2 years. Sexual abuse rampant against trans persons is also included within the same section. This is in stark contrast to provisions in the IPC that subject rape offence against women to a maximum term of seven years. 
More appalling is the lacklustre state of affairs in terms of affirmative action to provide dignity and equality to the community. A press release by transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex rights activists protesting the passing of the bill in the Jantar Mantar, says, that the Transgender Persons Act 2019 denies reservations and affirmative action for trans, intersex and gender nonconforming people in employment, education, and healthcare.
The provisions of the Act around discrimination have no penalties, and have discriminatory penalties for sexual assault against transgender persons as against that of women. Thus, by not providing reservations and other forms of affirmative action, the Act has failed to create an equitable platform that transgender persons can start to rely upon to effectively improve the quality of their lives.
Provisions of the Act around discrimination have no penalties, and have discriminatory penalties for sexual assault against transgender persons as against that of women
Applying the same lack of affirmative action in representation and identification of trans persons in hospitals and health centres, we observe that it is often reflected in the absence of trans-specific wards. Gender binaries of male and female wards restrict trans persons from accessing healthcare on a daily basis. Trans rights advocates claim that many trans persons routinely die in hospitals due to delays in hospital admission procedures.
According to the UNDP India report, “Hijras/Transgender Women in India: HIV, Human Rights and Social Exclusion”:
“The estimated size of MSM (men who have sex with men) and male sex worker populations in India (latter presumably includes Hijras/TG communities) is 2,352,133 and 235,213, respectively. No reliable estimates are available for Hijras/TG women. HIV prevalence among MSM populations was 7.4% as against the overall adult HIV prevalence of 0.36%. Until recently, Hijras/transgender people were included under the category of MSM in HIV sentinel sero-surveillance. Recent studies among hijras/transgender (TG) women have indicated a very high HIV prevalence (17.5% to 41%) among them.”
The trans community is one of the poorest and most marginalized communities in the country, most of them having barely any access to healthcare. Also, they are one of the most under-nourished communities and their health levels are lower than average citizens, which makes them even more susceptible to the corona virus infection.
As Pushpa Achanta says, most of the community members are working-class people and thus, can’t afford the privilege of social distancing if they were to get back to work. To that end, Solidarity Foundation offers grants and scholarships to gender minorities and other minority groups so that they could get training to do some kind of remote work.
Such forms of simple affirmative action can create a world of difference towards ensuring alternate means of sustainable income for these people. It is important to realize that there are multiple minority identities in the country and gender minorities are often in the intersections of multiple identities, further aggravating the case of deprivation and marginalization.
What can thus be done to improve healthcare accessibility for trans community during the pandemic is to educate them about the health risks that they are currently exposed to, and work towards making relevant health advisory available in all languages.
Hospitals and health centres must have wards earmarked for trans persons, so that neither they are denied admission, nor does confusion arise for health workers. The key is to foster inclusion of this highly marginalized and deprived community in accessing health services that the government is freely giving away to citizens, and this can only be done when hospital administrators, local administration and elected representatives take affirmative action towards making healthcare “trans-friendly”. Also, policy interventions such as including trans persons in the Ayushman Bharat scheme are desperately needed in order to make inclusion a reality.
---
*Second-year MBA student at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Modi’s Israel visit strengthened Pakistan’s hand in US–Iran truce: Ex-Indian diplomat

By Jag Jivan   M. K. Bhadrakumar , a career diplomat with three decades of service in postings across the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Turkey, has warned that the current truce in the US–Iran war is “fragile and ridden with contradictions.” Writing in his blog India Punchline , Bhadrakumar argues that while Pakistan has emerged as a surprising broker of dialogue, the durability of the ceasefire remains uncertain.
Post a Comment
»

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”
Post a Comment
»

Why Indo-Pak relations have been on 'knife’s edge' , hostilities may remain for long

By Utkarsh Bajpai*  The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.
Post a Comment
»

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.
Post a Comment
»

Food security? Gujarat govt puts more than 5 lakh ration cards in the 'silent' category

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.
Post a Comment
»

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

​ By Syed Ali Mujtaba*  ​The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.
Post a Comment
»

Lata Mangeshkar, a Dalit from Devdasi family, 'refused to sing a song' about Ambedkar

By Pramod Ranjan*  An artist is known and respected for her art. But she is equally, or even more so known and respected for her social concerns. An artist's social concerns or in other words, her worldview, give a direction and purpose to her art. History remembers only such artists whose social concerns are deep, reasoned and of durable importance. Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was a celebrated playback singer of the Hindi film industry. She was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her popularity was unmatched. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other South Asian countries. In this article, we will focus on her social concerns. Lata lived for 92 long years. Music ran in her blood. Her father also belonged to the world of music. Her two sisters, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, are well-known singers. Lata might have been born in Indore but the blood of a famous Devdasi family...
2 comments
»

'Batteries now cheap enough for solar to meet India's 90% demand': Expert quotes Ember study

By A Representative   Shankar Sharma, Power & Climate Policy Analyst, has urged India’s top policymakers to reconsider the financial and ecological implications of the country’s energy transition strategy in light of recent global developments. In a letter dated April 10, 2026, addressed to the Union Ministers of Finance, Power, New & Renewable Energy, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and the Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, with a copy to the Prime Minister, Sharma highlighted concerns over India’s ambitious plans for coal gasification and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).
Post a Comment
»

Health Day ads spark row as NAPi targets Britannia campaign, criticizes celebrity endorsement

By A Representative   The advocacy group Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) has raised concerns over what it describes as misleading advertising of ultra-processed food products (UPFs), particularly those high in sugar, fat and salt, calling for stricter regulations and an end to such promotions across media platforms.
Post a Comment
»