Third gender left out of vaccination drive; superstitions, misbeliefs keep their numbers low

Pune: Only a nominal number of 570 people who identify themselves as the third gender has received the Covid vaccine out of close to 1,000 such beneficiaries in the district

Pune: Only a nominal number of 570 people who identify themselves as the third gender has received the Covid vaccine out of close to 1,000 such beneficiaries in the district. A major reason as to why people from the third gender, which includes transgenders, hijras and other communities, is superstition and mis-beliefs which also stems from lack of education within the community.

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The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) along with a private hospital has organised a three-day special drive for people from the transgender community on July 14 this year. The Serum Institute of India’s (SII) CEO, Adar Poonawalla too had appealed to ensure vaccination for the community. Still, despite such efforts, the vaccine hesitancy within the third gender community still needs to be addressed.

As per the district health office, only 570 third gender beneficiaries have got Covid-19 vaccine of which 290 are from Pune city, 145 from PCMC and 135 from Pune rural. Under the special provisions and guidelines introduced by the central government and implemented by the district administration, people who identify themselves as the third gender can get anti-Covid vaccine.

Dr Suryakant Devkar, PMC immunisation officer said, “To ensure smooth and easy access of Covid vaccine to the third gender, the civic body had collaborated with a private hospital and vaccinated more than 169 people on the first day. We expect to get more beneficiaries and we will take up more such drives, it is an ongoing process and we have also made sure that no person is denied of vaccination because of lack of documents.”

On July 14, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla had expressed his support to the cause by initiating a three-day drive at Sancheti Hospital.

Bindumadhav Khire, founder of Samapathik Trust, said, “There is a lot of misconception and misbeliefs among the third gender community, especially the transgenders, regarding the vaccine. The transgenders believe that they might fall ill after the vaccine and as most of them are dependent on the daily wages, they do not want to lose their day’s wages. They have also got this perception that due to the breakthrough cases among those vaccinated there is no benefit in getting the vaccine and the hesitancy is also because of mis-conceptions that one might lose their life due to the vaccine. Even if they hear about one case where a person lost his or her life post vaccination, they become reluctant to get the jab. 290 might still seem like a large number especially considering the number of transgenders alone, however this includes both first and second dose and the term third gender is a very broad term and includes many sub categories, including hijras, transgender men and transgender women and the count of third genders people will cross a thousand in the district.”