Reports stated that over the last week, we have seen several visuals and reports of how the lockdown for COVID-19 has pushed disadvantaged persons migrant workers, daily wage labourers, sanitation workers further into a corner, and how the state’s policies to deal with them have been reactive. TNM spoke to several transgender persons and learnt their survival is in jeopardy after the lockdown. From not being able to procure antiretroviral (ARV) drugs if they are hiv (human immunodeficiency virus) positive to losing their livelihoods, policymakers and health departments have neglected their struggles while tackling the fallout of the pandemic.

Transgender persons living with hiv get their medication once a month or once in three months depending upon the stage of the illness they are in. The medicines are distributed monthly for patients in stage one and quarterly for those in stages two and three. And though the tamil Nadu government announced on tuesday that passes would be issued to people who need to travel to district hospitals to collect the medicines, the problem is that hiv positive persons are immune-compromised and hence afraid to go to district hospitals, where those with the novel coronavirus infection are admitted. 

While the indian government has been taking some steps to distribute ration through the Public Distribution System (PDS), the problem is that most transgender persons do not have ration cards, points out Chennai-based Shanavi Ponnusamy, who took air india to court for not giving her a cabin crew job because of her gender. Shanavi, who is the first to graduate from her family, is an engineer, model and actor, and is also presently unemployed. She said “I wish they allowed us to get ration items based on our transgender ID cards at least".