Delhi’s Northwest District Launches 4-Day COVID Vaccination Drive For Transgender People

New Delhi: The administration of Delhi’s northwest district on Tuesday launched a four-day COVID-19 vaccination drive for transgender people, officials said. The drive has been organised by the Northwest District Legal Services Authority in coordination with an NGO and a special walk-in centre was set up for the beneficiaries.

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The NGO approached us through the legal services authority. We have been holding special drives for different sections of people as we want the maximum number of people to get vaccinated. So we started this drive today (Tuesday), said District Magistrate Cheshta Yadav.

She said she has learnt that at 1,000, her district has the maximum number of transgender people in Delhi.

According to data shared by the district administration, 45 people were vaccinated as part of the special drive till 4 pm on Tuesday. The beneficiaries are being administered Covishield. Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights chairman Anurag Kundu wrote a letter to Yadav appreciating her initiative. I am pleased to learn that the northwest District has taken the decision to set up a vaccination centre for transgenders. This will be a significant step towards making the invisible visible, Kundu said in the letter.

Seeing the unseen is an inherent part of pursuit of justice I place on record the commission’s deepest appreciation for your thoughtful and progressive decision to celebrate pride by setting up a vaccination centre for transgenders, he wrote.

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Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is celebrated each year in the month of June.

There could not have been a better way to celebrate Pride Month. I sincerely hope that more public servants display your progressiveness and moral courage to come forward to make the unseen seen, and silent heard, he wrote in the letter.

Till May 30, just 25,468 transgender people had been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country as against 8,80,47,053 men and 7,67,64,479 women, according to data available on the CoWIN portal.

Activists say misinformation, lack of proper documents and digital divide are to be blamed for the low vaccination coverage in the transgender community.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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