Why India’s trans population is shying away from COVID vaccination

A minuscule 4 per cent of the 4.87 lakh-strong population of transgenders in India have been inoculated against COVID-19. The number gets further dwarfed when compared to the 7.53 crore men and 6.75 crore women who have been vaccinated in the country as of May 17.

A report in The Print names misinformation, lack of government identification cards and poor internet access (to make registrations) the main roadblocks that has kept many in the community from getting vaccinated.

Despite a high prevalence of co-morbidities and autoimmune diseases like HIV among people from the community, many have been unable to make it to the vaccination centre.

“I know several people who have HIV but are not bothered about getting treatment. They are also worried about the symptoms you get after getting the vaccine,” The Print quoted Vanshika Yadav, an outreach worker at Pehel Foundation, an NGO as saying.

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Divya Darshini, another NGO worker from Bengaluru that The Print quoted said many HIV positive people in the community avoid going out or into crowded places as they are immunocompromised and face a larger risk of contracting the infection.

While the community’s past distrust on medical institutions – blame it on the stigma they are subjected to – has contributed to their vaccine hesitancy, rumours of ‘negative’ outcomes of vaccination is also keeping them from registering for it, say activists.

“They need counselling on how important it is to get vaccinated…Lack of awareness and illiteracy is our greatest concern. We are a marginalised community, the pandemic has only added to an already existing mental stress,” Darshini said.

That apart, many with little or no idea of the workings of internet and a smartphone have found the rigmarole of online registration (for the vaccination) quite daunting. The central government has made it mandatory to book slots for vaccination via the CoWin app/website or the Aarogya Setu app.

“Our community does not know how to do online registration…they don’t know what to do. Very few people from the trans community have smartphones, so that is another huge issue,” Manpreet, a project manager at Pehel told The Print.

Not having proper identification cards, not even an Aadhar card, has also hindered many from registering for the vaccination or even walking to a centre.

“Most people don’t have any kind of documentation. We aren’t able to provide them with ration also because they don’t have proper ID,” said Pehel’s Yadav.

Ramkali, a social worker employed with Basera Samajik Sansthan attributes the low number of vaccinated people in the community to lack of gender identification cards.

She says several members of the community have either male or female marked against their names on their identity cards. “Very few people actually have trans IDs, which says they are transgender or ‘other’” she told The Print, adding that it could be the reason why the number of vaccinated people from the community is low in the database.

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So far, only the governments of Assam and West Bengal have given special attention to the vaccination of the people from the community. While the Assam government on May 14 announced special vaccination centres for trans people, the West Bengal government said it would inoculate transgender people along with sex workers, vendors and taxi/autorickshaw drivers on priority basis.