Queer Infocus | April I 2020

Queer InFocus is a bimonthly roundup of queer news in India.      

LGBT is the hardest hit group in these coronavirus times

5th April, 2020

The LGBTQIA+ community, like the poorest of the poor, has become one of the most affected by the impact of Covid-19. They are faced with no jobs or regular income, no medical care and no government policy to give them assistance on a preferential basis even though there are an estimated 100,000 transgenders who live in Telangana alone.

Vice President of Mobbera – an NGO working for the transgender community, Anil Kushary said that India’s coronavirus lockdown has left people at a heightened risk of ill health and poverty because they exist on the margins of society, making a living through sex work and begging.

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COVID-19: Govt must integrate transgender concerns in all policy and strategy, say NGOs

16th April, 2020

The Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) and its partner Sakha, in an appeal to the government, has said that transgenders must be included as a group in all policies and actions devised for disaster mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

CFAR Executive Director Akhila Sivadas said, “Just when we were beginning to work systematically with the government and all key stakeholders to build a supportive policy framework and an enabling environment for social acceptance and inclusion of transgenders across services and entitlements, this pandemic has again brought to the forefront the high cost of social exclusion and gender inequality,”

Meera Parida, the co-founder of Sakha said that transgenders have to be more prepared to avert the risk of getting infected by coronavirus as the group is perceived as being at high risk of contracting HIV and that many are possibly into substance use, which is very harmful in the present context.

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Published by The Pink List India, here’s a list of organisations working towards providing immediate relief for the queer community across the country.

Haima Simoes is the Outreach Officer at the Queer Resource Centre, One Future Collective.