By Jeremiah Ancheta
Two weeks ago, Cloud Dancers published a blog post overviewing the experiences of transgender people with the American health care system. In that post, we shared that, in the United States, it is currently prohibited by law for health care providers to discriminate against transgender people due to their transgender identity.
In this week’s post, we want to share more news on transgender health care access in other countries. Recently, India has taken multiple steps in making health care access for transgender people easier and more adequate.
According to a piece by Fenway Health, The Fenway Institute in collaboration with the John Hopkins University School of Medicine established the ACCELERATE Program, an initiative that “aims to ensure comprehensive health services for transgender communities in India in a safe environment, free from stigma.” Through this program, two clinics were established that attend to the specific medical needs of transgender people. The Mitr Clinic launched in Hyderabad, India in January 2021, with a second clinic opening in the same city in July 2021.
With the first two clinics launched so far, the ACCELERATE Program hopes that more sites will open up throughout all of India that are particularly designed to attend to the medical needs of the transgender community.
Furthermore, July 2021 saw the launch of “TransCare: MedEd” in India that aims “to promote trans-inclusive healthcare and to educate healthcare professionals on transgender health,” as reported by The Times of India. This project comes after the passing of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act in India in 2019, “which mandates governments to take measures for ‘review of medical curriculum and research for doctors to address their [transgender] specific health issues.’” In response to the passing of this Act, Sangath, a public health research NGO, launched this initiative in collaboration with Kasturba Medical College and was funded by the University of Chicago.
This is a huge step for the transgender community in India, who have previously voiced their concerns with the inadequacy of the Indian health care system. For instance, this piece by Al Jazeera in 2014 noted issues with the system such as “transphobia in India’s healthcare system” and health care professionals being familiar only with the traditional gender binary.
But that’s not all! On October 6, 2021, The Economic Times reported that the Ayushman Bharat, the national public health insurance scheme in the Indian Government that is free for low-income earners, “will now provide medical cover to transgenders and support medical intervention like sex change operations.” Those covered by Ayushman Bharat receive “free treatment at all public and empanelled private hospitals.” What this means is that with the inclusion of the aforementioned services, transgender people will receive free health care servics, including sex change operations, if they are covered by Ayushman Bharat.
With the establishment of medical facilities specifically designed for transgender people, further education for health care providers on transgender health and being trans-inclusive, as well as a national reform of Indian health insurance that provides free health care services for transgender people, India has seen a lot of progress in advancing transgender rights. Cloud Dancers hopes that other countries will take notice of India’s intervention in transgender health care and follow along in providing adequate and stigma-free health care for the community.