Transgender Health

Two cases this year that of a transgender person dying in a Peshawar hospital as healthcare providers deliberated over which ward to put her in; and of another who, after being diagnosed as HIV positive, was forced to live near a garbage dump until she died — highlight the insensitivity that prevails towards this marginalized community. Exact numbers for Pakistan’s transgender population are not known. Media estimates range between 80,000 to 500,000, but this figures lack credibility given that the last national census was conducted in 1998 and did not account for a third gender.

While many civil society organizations have recently organized seminars and protests for the security of transgender, they ignored the most important thing this community needs: access to healthcare. Healthcare is a universal right, but across the world particularly in Pakistan transgender persons face barriers in accessing it. Nor am I referring exclusively to hormone and transition-related care; many face tremendous barriers when trying to access the healthcare system for common illnesses and injuries. In recent conversations with members of this community, they revealed that they often don’t access hospital services to avoid ridicule and discrimination.

The transgender community in Pakistan is underserved. They can’t access the education system; they can’t have regular jobs like those who identify themselves as either male or female. Their livelihoods often depend on dancing at weddings or as sex workers in the absence of other opportunities. Once they are over 45, many turn to begging. Due to the nature of their occupation, they are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. The government, unfortunately, has ignored their plight.

The barriers to accessing healthcare are multilayered. Discrimination from medical staff is the biggest hurdle. The recent case in Peshawar should have been a catalyst for improving transgenders’ healthcare access, but few took that incident seriously. The transgender person was shot eight times. She lay on a stretcher. However, instead of arranging for emergency treatment, the hospital staff passed derogatory remarks and allegedly even propositioned sex to her and her friends. She eventually died.

While the case received media attention, even that did not galvanise the healthcare sector into making the necessary changes for the transgender community. There are thousands of others like her.Then we witnessed another side to the problem. Diagnosed HIV positive, a transgender person was evicted from her residence by her colleagues and friends. Her plight threw light on another type of barrier: lack of knowledge within the community. HIV/AIDS is a taboo issue, and while no one wants to be infected certain professions increase the risks of contracting it.

Even though the entire community is vulnerable to this, they deserted a friend who contracted it. It shows the lack of knowledge and empathy towards peers. Had they known that HIV is not contagious like the flu, and that their support could have helped increase her lifespan, they might have opted to help. Had they known that there are specialised HIV treatment centres, they might have saved her life by getting her the healthcare she needed.

A Lifetime of Problems

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2007), Article 2 which says “Every single human being is entitled to enjoy his or her human rights without distinction as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”. But in our country we do not even think about the person who has third sex and for this reason we treat them in a curl way.

We do not give them their proper rights for instance till 2013 they were not permitted to have the national Identity card. As a consequence of this, they were not ready to appreciate any of the privileges of a national and in addition there is no factual records of transgender populace show in Pakistan, as they were not enlisted in NADRA. Here the privilege of nationality was not conveyed to them. Besides, they are not gave the privilege of government managed savings.

It has been seen various circumstances that at open spots average citizens and even the police harm and torture transgender on many terms like physically, verbally, sexually and inwardly. In addition to this because of their sexual orientation they are not socially accepted and their family mostly prefers to hand them over to the bisexual group. In addition to this because of their sexual orientation they are not socially accepted and their family mostly prefers to hand them over to the bisexual group.

Moreover they were mostly excluded by their own parents, who consider them as a cause of disgrace and stigmatization for the whole family. As a result of this these people faced isolation from the society. They are additionally denied from getting good education as well as respectable jobs because of social stigmatization. Due to which they decide to get into the immoral ways of living and earning.

For instance as they do not get any respectful way of earning due to their sexual introduction and absence of education, they pick prostitution as their profession, hey offer sex to produce wage. From the more extensive point of view, prostitution itself has so many harmful and dangerous results in society like transmission of STIs and STDs in population. For the determination of third gender issues, it is essential to take a shot at the arrangement of necessary human rights to bisexuals as presentation of bills on government and national levels in Pakistan.

Recommended to start a campaign to change the absurd attitude and behavior of people towards bisexuals with the assistance of media and on-going mindfulness sessions and so on. In all the private and open areas there ought to be a reservation of some % of seats for occupations and training for bisexuals. Besides all the partners including religious and group pioneers can play out their part by correcting the misconceptions and misinterpretations people hold related to bisexuals.

Transgender Health Care

All of us are familiar with the term transgender. Some think of it as bisexual people while some of us consider them as homosexual. The actual meaning of transgender is a person whose gender is not specified. They have different gender expressions or gender identity than the assigned sex. Those who take medical help to transform from one sex to another are called transsexual. They are also classified as the third gender. They are neither male nor female and their gender is unspecified.

Pakistan is a country where transgender have never been given full rights. We are in the 21st century and still, this issue hasn’t been resolved. We speak a lot about rights of people but nobody has ever paid attention to transgender. Even when they are just walking in the street they get really abusive comments that hurt their feeling. People consider them as some garbage and taunt them. They tell them to go work and don’t beg. They call them prostitutes, give them titles like sluts but nobody has ever realized that this is the only thing they can do. How can they get a job when they don’t even have a right to get an identity card? They are not allowed in schools and colleges so how can they get an education. They are constantly mocked and get abused mentally and physical.

Health is the first and foremost thing in everybody’s life. A person who isn’t healthy won’t be able to do any task and achieve anything. Pakistan has so many health care departments and hospitals that provide services for the health of people. But sadly transgender are left behind in this too. They are not considered as human and sometimes don’t even get treatment. Even if they get treated, that isn’t done properly or they had to suffer a lot before getting it. The exact number of transgender in Pakistan is not known. According to media, there are 80,000 to 5 lac transgender present in Pakistan. The last census was done in 1998 and the third gender was not accounted.

There are many seminars arranged for the rights of transgender but the most important issue related to them is not mentioned or highlighted i-e the heath care issue. There are so many hospitals and health care centers in Pakistan but only a few of them treat transgender fairly. Once, a transgender was diagnosed with HIV positive. She needed urgent help but the so-called hospital administration instead of treating her forced him to live nearby garbage dump. This isn’t it. There is another story of insensitivity happened in the beautiful and full of life city of Peshawar. A transgender person was seriously ill and had to put in a hospital. The health care providers were confused where to put her; in men’s ward or in women’s. In this war of gender specification, an innocent person died who wasn’t even able to speak up for herself.

History and present are full of thousands of story that shows the insensitive behavior of this mankind. Transgender need health care facilities for transition-related care and hormones but they aren’t even getting the basic health care facilities for common problems and injuries. This world needs positivity and care. Our basic duty is to help others. So people should stand up for the rights of transgender as we are a nation and they are a part of it.