Tag: Indian Healthcare

Ashwani Mehta, an Indian Navy veteran and a social worker based in Lucknow, says India has learnt its lessons from past Covid waves and is positioned well to handle any health calamity

‘Hybrid Immunity Will Help Us Tackle A Fresh Covid Wave’

By LokMarg

Ashwani Mehta, an Indian Navy veteran and a social worker based in Lucknow, says India has learnt its lessons from past Covid waves and is positioned well to handle any health calamity

Covid-19 pandemic was a challenge not just for India but for the entire world. We indeed suffered a lot because of population density but a strong leadership at the centre and our robust medical research infrastructure helped us come out of the tragedy stronger. We not only developed an effective vaccine in record time but also produced and delivered serum to many countries.

As far as the new variant of the COVID -Omicron sub-variant BF.7 is concerned, we are well prepared and better positioned to handle any possible surge in future. The pandemic era taught us some lessons and the progress that India has achieved over the past few years has left the world astonished. India has set an example for generations to follow.

Looking at the situation in China, things have again started deteriorating due to a renewed surge. The Chinese authorities are reeling under the fresh wave and, in spite of trying to hide figures, a very high number of casualties.

Mehta says India has no reasons to fear a new surge

In comparision, India has no reasons to fear or to go on the back-foot as infection in India is currently under control. We belong to a generation that was left on the ground (mitti) to play… this helped us develop natural immunity. Post-Covid, a large part of our population has got vaccinated. Thus, we have among us a hybrid immunity – a combination of vaccination and natural immunity. As far as the backlashes of the new variant of the Corona virus is concerned, we are at safe. Therefore India is in a better position to fight the pandemic than China.

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Having said that, I request our fellow countrymen to get vaccinated and if they already have, get the booster dose. According to the ICMR study, 65 to 70 percent of the population was affected by the wave of corona that had come to the fore in India. In some states, the number was even higher. Experts believe that this vast spread has created herd immunity.

Some such studies have also come out where it is mentioned that due to both natural and corona vaccine, the immunity will remain effective for a long time. Most people in India have acquired this immunity through dual contagian. Yet, as a responsible citizen, I request every Indian to remain prepared to fight against all any probable calamities and contribute to the nation building.

As told to Rajat Rai

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A Trans-Inclusive and Gender Affirmative Healthcare in India

‘Our Healthcare Is Woefully Insensitive To Trans People’

By LokMarg

Dr Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, Karnataka’s first transwoman doctor, rues lack of a trans-inclusive and gender affirmative healthcare in India, which reflects in vaccination drive too

When I was ten years old, my parents took me to a psychiatrist hoping for answers as why my behaviour was gender non-conforming. Instead of being accurately counselled, we were told that I lacked a masculine influence in my life, and that my mother was performing roles that were stereotypically masculine (such as going to work, living a financially independent life and not performing house chores). And that was confusing my sense of gender. The advice was outdated, misogynistic and queerphobic. I stepped out of the clinic thinking I was “crazy”.

In my MBBS years, I found little mention of the healthcare that trans-people require in either my syllabus or in training. The group did find mention in the context of sexual perversions, psychiatric disorders and high-risk groups for HIV/AIDS – all of which are misleading, inaccurate and obsolete perspectives. It is almost as if the medical fraternity doesn’t see trans-people as deserving of access to healthcare.

As has become clear with the case of trans-activist, radio-jockey Anannyah Kumari Alex, there is a significant lacuna with regards to trans-inclusive and gender affirming healthcare in the country.

Transgender people are one of the most marginalised sections of society, an invisible minority. A recent study conducted for the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) showed that only about 2 per cent of all trans-persons surveyed lived with their natal family; the majority faced social and familial rejection and; 23% were forced into sex work, a profession with exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Dr Haldar says Indian healthcare is queerphobic and outdated both in curriculum and training

Given the pandemic, the risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 for Trans sex workers has been enormous. The pandemic added to financial and health-related burdens. Yet, hospitals across the country remain trans-exclusionary, right from the lack of sensitisation and training of medical and para-medical staff, to the lack of infrastructure such as inclusive wards and restrooms. Vaccine outreach has been particularly difficult for this reason.

Any form of healthcare right from the most basic healthcare, such as a sore throat, to specialised healthcare like endocrinology or urology remain blatantly inaccessible and unaffordable. Indian healthcare has a long way to go in creating safe, accessible, affordable healthcare models across the country for queer and trans-persons.

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I always found surgery a very noble and artistic pursuit, one that required finesse, dedication and compassion. Upon witnessing surgery in high school thanks to family friends who were doctors, I was drawn to medicine, and knew I had to pursue it as a career.

The change needs to occur at several levels. First, the medical councils at national and state level need to remove all pathological models of transgender identity from the syllabi. This means that transgender identity must not be seen as an abnormality, but as a variation, which needs support and not correction. This is the model adopted by the World Health Organisation and the American Psychiatric Association. This information and sensitivity thereof must be conveyed to medical and para medical students and staff at an early stage of their careers.

Next, hospitals and colleges must allot wards and washrooms to trans-persons, and train supportive staff in handling trans-patients with sensitivity. All forms of conversion therapy to “correct” LGBTQIA+ persons must be outlawed and made punishable as recently directed by the Madras High Court.

Research and training in gender-affirming healthcare must be encouraged at all levels. Hospitals across the world have created training programs that India may draw inspiration from, and recalibrate learning for its doctors and staff.

Most important, a cultural shift is necessary in making society in general safe for trans-people – starting from conversation at the dinner table, inclusive sex education at schools, representation in the media and all professions, especially in healthcare. “Nothing about us, without us” is a slogan often used in disability activism, and the very same applies to transgender persons in our fight for equality.

As Told To Mamta Sharma