Floods hit Assam’s trans persons hard

According to All Assam Transgender Association (AATA), at least 13 gharanas or traditional housing for trans groups, each comprising 60-70 people, were washed away.

A transgender organisation claimed that trans people were among the worst affected in flood-hit Assam as they have little access to relief.

An aerial view of flooded Majuli, an island in River Brahmaputra, Assam on Tuesday. Monsoon flooding and landslides continued to cause havoc in South Asia on Tuesday, with authorities in northeastern India battling to provide relief to over 4 million people in Assam state, officials said. (Photo: AP)

According to All Assam Transgender Association (AATA), at least 13 gharanas or traditional housing for trans groups, each comprising 60-70 people, were washed away.

Pinki Begum, a 27-year-old in Nagaon district, said rising water levels have displaced 40 members of her community. Their savings have been lost, too. “We spent four nights in a tent camped on a highway with no food,” Begum said.

When her house was flooded in 2017, she found little help in relief camps, she said. “If others got 10 kg ration, we got 1 kg.”

AATA founder Swati Bidhan Baruah said social attitudes, bias and discrimination came into sharper focus during natural disasters. “Whatever money comes always goes to the men and women. This is why we need to target measures to specifically help them,” she said.

Assam’s State Disaster Management Authority refused to comment on the issue even as it said the agency acted without bias. “The government is taking all possible steps to provide assistance to the flood-affected people of the state as per the norms,” the agency said in a statement.

Activists say at least two trans people have died in Nagaon and hundreds displaced.