Transgender community in Mumbai requests support amid COVID-19 pandemic
Apr 17, 2021
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 17 : As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on across the country, the transgender community in Mumbai has requested immediate support for nutrition, masks, and sanitisers.
With several restrictions in place across the state, members of the community say that their livelihoods have been affected.
"Immediate support for nutrition, face masks and sanitisers is required for the transgender community due to imposition of lockdown and an increasing number of COVID-positive patients every day in our state. Our Transgender community depends on daily badhayi, begging, and sex work. Due to lockdown, we lost their livelihood," said Salma Khan, President, Kinnar Maa Trust.
"The Government machinery has not extended relief package to transgender people. Additionally, we do not have family and societal support. We humbly ask that support be extended to our community," said Kushbu a transgender person.
Maharashtra remains one of the worst affected states hit by the pandemic. The state reported 63,729 new cases and 398 deaths on Friday, taking the total active cases in the state to 6,38,034, as per the state health department.
Out of the new cases, 8,839 were reported in Mumbai.
