l[continued]

We also have to keep in mind that all trans people may not wish to undergo surgeries and there are trans people who cannot start the process for various reasons for financial issues, social pressure, health issues -- some may have diabetes or may have obesity, and so on.

Now the problem is that we live in a cisgender-heteronormative and binary world, where it is very difficult for transgender people to access healthcare systems if they haven’t started the process of transitioning.

If a trans masculine person who has not started transitioning, and has to be admitted to the hospital, he will be kept in a female ward, which increases the dysphoria more.

Without changing his name and gender on the documents, without undergoing surgeries, the medical staff in the doctors and hospitals consider them as per their gender on official documents, which makes them more uncomfortable.

These experiences of getting rejected, humiliated, and violated, vary from nursing homes in urban area to state hospitals in rural areas. It's different.

In West Bengal, the State Transgender Board was formed in 2015 but it has remained almost unfunctional during all these years, apart from organizing only one meeting with the health department, which led to no positive outcome.

We've heard that the state is trying to start the process of making gender-affirming healthcare accessible in two government hospitals but they have not yet started the process.

Another challenge is the non-inclusion of trans people in medical insurance. On the one hand the gender-affirming surgeries are not covered by medical insurance, and on the other, if they have to be admitted to the hospital, they are not in a position to access healthcare.

Agreeing to what Vyjayanti said earlier today, I'll add that we are a population of the ocean and having only a few queer and trans-affirmative doctors and health professionals is not enough.

We have to spread out the sensitization, so that the rest of the community members don't have to face such violence, such discrimination as some of us have already faced or are still facing.