Smiley Movement logo

Mumbai’s dedicated LGBT clinic

Words by Smiley Team

Vivek Sharma has travelled 20km from his home to the congested eastern suburb of Mumbai for his HIV treatment. But the journey is no hardship for the 23-year-old student.

“My file was shifted to this clinic. I am so happy that this has finally happened.”

Sharma, who is bisexual, is waiting in the reception of a clinic believed to be India’s first specifically for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, having transferred his treatment from a government hospital closer to home.

“In any other [antiretroviral] waiting room of the city, I wouldn’t have been at such ease,” says Sharma, who was diagnosed as HIV positive in 2017. In between friendly chats with the clinic’s staff, he adds: “The crowd there would have immediately labelled me as homosexual and made sure I felt unwelcome.”

About 2.1 million people are HIV positive in India, one of the highest rates in the world. But access to treatment and services for gay people, as well as transgender people and female sex workers is poor. A 2016 Lancet paper on transgender health in India found that two-thirds of transgender people had no access to treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Only 59% had been referred for HIV testing and 67% had not been given proper counselling about antiretroviral therapy (ARV).

“We have known days when trans communities could not get past the doors of any public healthcare deliveries in India. Security does not let them in,” says Vivek Anand, CEO of the Humsafar Trust, which opened the clinic in February. The trust has advocated for the rights of the LGBT movement in India for 25 years.

All the clinic’s staff, from the receptionist, pharmacist to the counsellors, belong to the LGBT community. Humsafar has been running a clinic for HIV testing from its offices since 1999.

“Over the years, 30-40% of the individuals who tested HIV positive at our clinic disappeared at some point during their [ARV] treatment at government hospitals,” says Anand. “Half of them never even showed up. More than discrimination, self-stigmatisation keeps the community away from accessing treatment.”

Counselling is essential to ensure sexual minorities continue their treatment.

“The number of patients in public [ARV] centres is very high,” says Srikala Acharya, director of Mumbai District Aids Control Society. “They can’t provide patients with quality prevention counselling or lifestyle management skills.”

Original article by Payal Mohta - Source The Guardian

Picture by Vinayak Das


This article aligns with the following UN SDGs

You might also like…