Fear of social ostracisation keeps transgenders from registering

Members of the community say many are infected but only a fraction register with government

PESHAWAR: As a transgender grows older, most are left poor, with few friends and with sex often the only way to pay for their expenses. But this leaves them with diseases for company.

“When you lose your beauty, you are no longer wanted and this is what compels transgenders to indulge in sex work to eat, pay rent and ultimately fall prey to HIV, AIDS,” lamented the head of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) Transgender Community Farzana Jan told The Express Tribune, adding that as many as 450 members of the community have been diagnosed with the virus.



People who are transgender in the province are particularly at risk from the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Farzana says Iqbal Plaza is a popular haunt for those wishing to indulge in a sex act with a transgender since it is a locality inhabited by a large number of transgenders.  She adds that they get customers from almost all age groups to satisfy themselves.

“What other options do [those who are not selected for pangrams] have to earn their keep and pay rent for their lodgings,” Farzana said, adding that she has been asking the government to provide a separate and secure location for members of her community to live in peace, but the government has yet to consider their request.

Asked why are members of the community reluctant to have themselves regularly tested to protect themselves, Farzana said that memories of what Dewani had to go through, not only within the community but the society as well, was still fresh in their minds.

Last year, the transgender community in the province had disowned a young member — 24-year old Dewani — after she tested positive for HIV/AIDS.

Dewani’s example had dissuaded others from coming forward to have themselves tested or to register as an infected with the K-P AIDS Control Programme.

According to the Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance in Pakistan 2016-17, transgender sex workers have the second largest HIV prevalence in the province at 3.3 per cent. By comparison, injected drug users have a prevalence of 7.8 per cent in the province.

Around 3,500 patients are registered with the K-P AIDS Control Programme across the province. However, only 22 members of the transgender community are registered with the programme.

But some believe that the figure is much higher than even the 450 quoted by Farzana. The AIDS Control Programme Project Director Dr Saleem said that AIDS diagnosis and treatment centres have been expanded to all divisional headquarters while there were two centres in the provincial capital alone.

“This was done only to help people reach these facilities easily,” Saleem told The Express Tribune. 



He, however, urged the media and activists to help fight the stigma attached with AIDS since many infected refuse to register with the programme, fearing that they will be socially ostracised and even isolated by their own family.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2017.