India's sees its first clinic operated for and by the LGBTQ community in Mumbai

After supporting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) communities for almost 20 years, Mumbai-based Humsafar Trust has recently opened a healthcare centre in the city for their needs. The hospital will also spread awareness and provide treatment for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and other health concerns.

This centre is India's first holistic clinic that is set up specially for the LGBTQ community. To ensure a friendly environment for the patients, where they are not discriminated against or made to feel alienated, the clinic has  employed members from the LGBTQ community for receptionists, pharmacists, and counsellors.

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Vivek Anand, CEO of the Humsafar Trust, who spoke to The Guardian, states the difficulties faced by the LGBTQ community due to the lack of proper health treatment.

“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,” he says.

In India, about 2.1 million people are HIV positive, and the HIV treatments provided to the LGBTQ community is considered poor. According to the 2016 Lancet paper on transgender health in India, about 59 percent of the LGBTQ community is sent for HIV testing, but 67 percent of them haven't received proper counselling about antiretroviral therapy (ART).

On the importance of ART in HIV treatment, Humsafar Trust Founder-Chairperson Ashok Row Kavi tells Hindustan Times,

“Until now we would get testing done for the community members at our centre. If tested positive, they would be asked to go to Sion Hospital, but there was a huge dropout (rate) there. Because of how the community is perceived outside, a lot of these people wouldn’t seek treatment.”

Kavi also states how this clinic is a one-stop centre for pre-counselling, detection, counselling, and treatment for HIV patients in the community.  

According to Dr Srikala Acharya of Mumbai District AIDS Control Society, there has been a decrease in the number of LGBTQ patients having HIV in over 20 years due to the intervention of community-based groups.  

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