Report- Ritwik Dutta
Delhi Commission for Women's chairperson Swati Maliwal asked Delhi government to provide free gender-reassignment surgeries to the transgender community.
New Delhi— Delhi government has sent a circular to all the government hospitals in Delhi to fast forward the process of including gender transitioning surgery for all trans people free of cost.
The basic requirement to initiate the process would be to have a plastic surgery ward in the hospital along with a plastic surgeon.
The recommendation initiated by the Delhi Commission for Women was on the basis of making access of medical healthcare accessible for the Transgender community.
Most of the people from the community usually have to spend 15-20 lacs to go ahead with the surgeries which makes it accessible to only a few people. This excludes the people of the community who come from a different class, caste, race, region and religion.
Most of the people from the community face day-to-day abandonment, discrimination, and ostracization which makes it difficult for the people from the community to undertake education. This reflects the scarcity of employability for the community people including the difficulty of accessing workspaces as a trans person.
As a part of the process, the Delhi commission has issued a notice asking for provisions in hospitals of the Delhi government regarding provisions available to conduct surgeries.
However, the details of the hospitals with the mentioned facilities aren't disclosed yet.
It is also essential to mention that gender-affirming procedures need to consider a lot of other details including the kind of surgeries, the precautions and the risk associated with it.
The commission was further informed by the Department of Health and Family Welfare that the facilities required for gender-affirming procedures are not available in Government hospitals. However, the health director passed an order for the constitution of the committee under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) GNCTD to examine and submit a report on the raised concern.
Thereafter, a notice was sent by Maliwal to DGHS seeking to know the status of the request from the committee. Later, the commission was informed that the facilities required for gender affirmation surgery were made available in the Burn and Plastic Department of Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Delhi.
DCW, chief Maliwal has reissued a summon asking the health department why free gender-affirming procedures have only been made available in one government hospital. This excludes all the other hospitals which have a "Burn and Plastic" surgery ward including a plastic surgeon as the basic requirement for the procedures.
The question though remains about the medical fraternity being aware of trans people and their medical healthcare needs which are beyond surgical procedures and also require sensitization of the language which is built beyond binary.
The health implication includes aftercare, the consciousness around creating a safer space in medical spaces, and accommodating compassionate forms of support for the people.
On the other hand, there are several schemes under Ayushman Bharat which are dedicated to offering insurance to people from the community at the onset of covering cosmetic surgery.
However, the underlying question around recognizing dysphoria and gender-reaffirming procedures under the umbrella of "cosmetic" is equally problematic and has often been raised as a questionable marker by civil rights society, queer-trans activists and healthcare workers.
The question is, where does the identity of the trans community lie in the social landscape, where most of the social, medical, and cultural spaces are said to be available effortlessly to the community but if we delve closer, we are still a long way off from doing so.
Do we still recognize the community as a part of the society? and if we do, how do we do it paving a way for inclusiveness, integrity, recognition and establishment within the majoritarian ecosystem?
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