The West Bengal government-run M. R. Bangur Hospital, a COVID-19-designated facility located in south Kolkata, has earmarked beds for COVID-19 patients belonging to the transgender community.<\/p>\n
On Monday evening, the hospital admitted its first coronavirus patient \u2014 a transgender woman \u2014 who worked in a diagnostic laboratory and possibly picked up the infection while collecting blood samples.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first hospital in the entire country to earmark beds for [COVID-19] patients from the transgender community. Two beds each have been earmarked for transgender women and men in the female and male wards respectively,\u201d West Bengal\u2019s Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya told The Hindu<\/em>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe credit goes entirely to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,\u201d said Ms. Bhattacharya, \u201cWe had merely placed the proposal before her. She is the one who issued the directive.\u201d The Chief Minister holds the Health portfolio as well.<\/p>\n Even though Ms. Bhattacharya \u2014 quite expectedly \u2014 gave the credit to the Chief Minister, organisations that work for the transgender community insisted that the junior Minister herself was instrumental in ensuring that the hospital admitted COVID-19 patients from the community.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite all the court verdicts and the laws, very little has been done for the community at the ground level. Even Mamata Banerjee\u2019s government had done nothing for us all these years, but this decision is a milestone and will go a long way in helping people like us,\u201d said Ranjita Sinha, who runs the Association of Transgender\/Hijra in Bengal and who \u2014 since she enjoys a good rapport with Ms. Bhattacharya \u2014 was instrumental in pushing the proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that facility gets extended to other cities in West Bengal and to other States as well,\u201d said Ms. Sinha, who is also a member of the West Bengal Transgender Development Board and is on the National Task Force for the community.<\/p>\n Bappaditya Mukherjee, founder-director of the NGO Prantakatha, who was among the first to discuss the vulnerability of the transgender community with Ms. Sinha when the pandemic began spreading in Kolkata in March, said: \u201cAs it is transgender people are marginalised. They avoid mainstream hospitals because of harassment and prejudices. So if they test positive for COVID-19, where do they go? That was a big worry for us. We are happy that a beginning has been made \u2014 what we need now is awareness, so that people from the community know where to go in case they feel unwell.\u201d<\/p>\n The transgender woman presently admitted in M.R. Bangur Hospital lives in Prantakatha premises in south Kolkata, since no landlord was willing to rent her accommodation. \u201cShe called me from the hospital last evening. She is being taken good care of. She said she was given food and medicines. What more does one need \u2014 just some dignity,\u201d said Mr. Mukherjee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u2018A milestone\u2019<\/h2>\n