The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to create a separate wing at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for the transgender community.
The court also asked the Central government to issue a list of benefits for transgenders under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
The order of a division bench on Monday followed a hearing on a petition filed by Swati Bidhan Baruah, a transgender rights activist and the first transgender judge in the northeast, when the Ayushman Bharat scheme was being rolled out in Assam.
‘Landmark order’
“I approached the court after I saw the transgender community excluded from the scheme. The court’s landmark order should enable the community to get its own health wing at the GMCH,” Ms. Baruah told journalists in Guwahati.
Ms. Baruah said the court has sought a specialist dealing with the health issues of transgenders to be made available at the separate GMCH health. The wing will also provide sex reassignment surgery, she said.
In 2019, the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai became the country’s first hospital to have a full-fledged multi-specialty clinic for transgenders.
