A community on the far fringes of immunisation

58-year old Nagina, whose weather beaten skin speaks of a tempestuous life, is a motherfigure to some 50 khwaja siras living under her guardianship in the city of Kohat. The elderly transgender woman, respectfully addressed as guru by her chailas, is the cornerstone of Kohat’s hijra community, which she has been fostering for the last decade.

“Nagina runs the show here,” exclaimed one of her daughters. “She arranges for our hair, our makeup, our dresses, our performances, and our security. We go to her for advice and count on her to have a solution to our problems,” she added. However, for the last one year, the frown lines on Nagina’s forehead appear to have deepened into permanence. The threat of Covid-19, which seems to be compounding with every passing day, has brought endless worries to her community.

While the realisation that if the diseases catches up to them, she and her daughters may not have access to suitable healthcare to even fight for their lives, has started to haunt her every day. “At first, it was about making ends meet during the lockdowns. But now, it is a matter of life and death,” the 58-year old opined, as a heavy sigh escaped her chapped lips. Nagina’s community, which has been forced to live on the fringes of society, is among one of the most vulnerable demographics owing to their limited access to healthcare and deplorable living conditions.

“We don’t have a lot of space, so about 4-5 of us have to share a small room. If we contract the virus, unlike other people, we neither have the privilege to isolate or the liberty to take an off from work. I am too old to dance, but my girls still have to go put on a show and meet tens of people, come hail or snow. Whatever money we gather, puts food on our table everyday so what are we to do— live in fear or die of hunger?” she exclaimed.

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However, the government’s lack of interest towards developing a specialised awareness campaign for the province’s khwaja sira community, means that many like Nagina and her children, despite their higher susceptibility, have no knowledge of the ongoing nation-wide coronavirus inoculation drive. Speaking on the matter, Nagina said that although she knows that there is some kind of a vaccination programme for the elderly, but no NGO or government agency in Kohat has bothered reaching out to her community to better inform them about the programme.

“Many of us don’t even know how to register for the jabs, or the kind of records and details that may be required. We don’t know what’s in those vials or what kind of side-effects it may have on us. Owing to all of this, not a single khwaja sira in the province has been vaccinated yet,” the elderly guru informed. Addressing the transgender community’s claims, Social Welfare and Women’s Development Minister Hisham Inamullah told The Express Tribune that that the said group’s vaccination imperative to stopping the spread of Covoid-19. The minister, who agreed that the community stands at a higher risk, said that the government is trying make the vaccine accessible to all segments of society, including the Khwaja siras.

“I understand that regrettably most of our transgender community still lives below the poverty line and cannot afford private vaccinations. Which is why, I have urged the setting up of special counters for transgender people in the cabinet on priority basis and hopefully, it will soon be a reality,” the minister disclosed. According to Trans Action Alliance Head Qamar Naseem however, there are approximately 40,000 transgender persons across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and its tribal districts. Yet, out of all of them, only 1,400 are those officially acknowledged in the national census, while there is no specific data on the number of Khwaja siras above the age of 52 years.

This gap in verification makes the immunisation a tad more difficult for the transgender community, many of whom may still not have access to proper identification cards and other documents. “The transgender population has to register for vaccination the same as anyone else, i.e. by texting their CNIC number to the government-endorsed Covid-19 hotline. Yet however, due to various reasons, not a single Khwaja sira in all of K-P seems to have registered for the jab so far,” Naseem told The Express Tribune.