Zubair Qureshi
Besides affecting the poor and marginalized community, Covid-19 has also enhanced the existing socio-economic vulnerability and isolation for the transgender community further.
Immediate short and long term measures in the existing crisis situation due to pandemic are absolutely imperative to support the community, especially by the government, in addition to ensure alternate means of livelihood in a changed environment.
The representatives of the transgender community and the development experts shared these views with the audience at online policy dialogue titled ‘Transgender Community amid Covid-19; the already isolated community in Quarantine’ organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI0 here on Thursday.
Khursand Bayar Ali, Project Manager at Saathi Foundation, Lahore, while giving an overall outlook of the situation that transgender community is facing in the aftermath of the pandemic, said that the government and the state couldn’t play the role here to support an already marginalized segment of society.
She said that psychosocial counseling to be able to cope with the distress caused by the pandemic and increased isolation is critical for the community members beside the skill development such as using online space to earn livelihood in this new societal scenario.
Dr Shafqat Munir, Director Resilient Development Programme at SDPI, presented the state of vulnerability of the transgender community in our society while presenting the global context of the phenomenon. He said that unfortunately the stigma we have attached with the transgender community leaves a very little space for this segment of society to enjoy equal citizenship and access to opportunities including the means to earn livelihood.
He said the need assessment of the persons with special needs including the transgender community needs to be done properly for the right policy measures by the government. Besides, our societal behaviors towards the marginalized segments of society need serious introspection and must be changed for their socio-economic assimilation.
Alishah Sherazi, consultant for Gender &Minorities, UNDP, Islamabad, said that the transgender community has lost whatever little employment they had due to Covid-19. She said that the government has yet to provide any kind of assistance to this already isolated group.
Waqar Sherazi, Development Sector’s Professional, BISP, Islamabad, was of view that the transgender community in Pakistan is kept denied of access to health, education and other services.
He said that the government and the society are equally responsible for this exclusion and this approach must be revisited
now.
Faisal, Representing transgender community at Bait-ul-Mal, Islamabad on the occasion highlighted various kinds of vulnerabilities that transgender community is facing and said that Covid-19 has aggravated these issues further. She said that steps should be taken to alleviate the problems of this extremely marginalized community.
