More than 2,000 members of the transgender community in India wrote a letter to the government on Saturday, asking for financial assistance during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
The country has been locked down since March 25, with transportation halted, state borders shut, and businesses suspended.
This has hit the transgender community hard, said the letter -- many of them rely on sex work or begging for their income, neither of which can be done during the lockdown.
The letter asked for “an assured subsistence income of at least 3000 rupees (close to $40) per month to every transgender person across the country,” as well as supplies of food and medicine, and protection against eviction.
“This is a constituency which has been very badly affected, already marginalized and further invisibilized during such a pandemic, prone to higher health risks, many of whom don’t have ration cards, adequate ID cards, etc. So it is very important that the central government takes cognizance and provides necessary reliefs, regardless of ration cards,” said Meera Sanghamitra of the National Alliance of People’s movements, one of the primary signatories of the letter.
The National Institute of Social Defense provided an interim relief of 1,500 rupees (about $20) to 4,500 transgender people after a previous request from members of the community.
However, the letter said that this relief doesn't even cover monthly necessities, and that it was provided to less than 1% of the transgender people in the country.
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April 30, 2020 at 04:48PM
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