“People started inviting us in, offering us tea, and asking for advice,” one trans woman involved in the campaign said.
A group of transgender women in India helped vaccinate nearly 1,500 children over the past two years as part of a non-governmental pilot program, organizers reported this week.
The Sakhee Project, which launched in April 2023, sought to improve vaccination rates and health outcomes for migrant communities in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The program was operated by the nonprofit non-governmental organization ZMQ Development and funded by the international health partnership Gavi, per a post about the project on Gavi’s website published Thursday.
Looking to combat vaccine skepticism and mistrust of officials among migrant residents — especially those who are undocumented — organizers enlisted trans women to bridge the communication gap. Members of the trans cohort were collectively dubbed “Sakhee didi” (a common Hindi phrase denoting a trusted sister-like friend), and were trained to go door-to-door providing vaccine information and accompanying health workers to perform immunization.
“Migrant families often fear authorities, especially if they lack documents,” ZMQ founder Hilmi Quraishi explained, per Gavi. “We needed a bridge between the health system and the community.”
Two years later, the Sakhee didis have filled that role, helping vaccinate almost 1,500 children in Maharashtra by reaching about 40 households per day, according to Gavi’s report. Across three cohorts of children, all had received at least one vaccination dose since 2023, and community members reportedly adhered to vaccination schedules more consistently.
Despite early incidents of mistrust and abuse directed at the women, including fears that they would kidnap and injure children, community attitudes shifted over time, some of the workers recalled.
“At first, we were chased away,” said, Amrin Khan, one of the women who acted as a Sakhee didi. “Later, people started inviting us in, offering us tea, and asking for advice. They would say, ‘Come in, sister. Sit down and talk.’”
That’s a significant shift for trans people in India, who face heavy marginalization, stigmatization, and violence. As many as 80% of trans women in the region rely on sex work or begging to survive, Indian trans activist Abhina Aher told Open Democracy in 2023. The organizers and workers of the Sakhee Project hoped that the program would provide better work opportunities and a chance to push back against common anti-trans prejudice — and appear to have succeeded.
“They [the Sakhee didis] made our work much easier,” nurse and midwife Yasmeen Khan told Gavi. “When we went with them, people opened up. They were excellent communicators and played a crucial role in overcoming vaccine hesitancy.”
Unfortunately, it’s not clear what the future holds for the Sakhee didis or the life-saving initiative they made possible. Gavi’s report noted that the project, described as a two-year pilot program, “has since ended,” and did not provide information about any plans for its future. Them contacted ZMQ via its website for further details, but did not immediately receive a reply.
Economic and social opportunities are slowly opening up for trans people in India, though discrimination and abuse are still common. In 2021, another nonprofit organization chose Maharashtra as the site for Kinnar Vidyalaya, a school providing free education specifically for trans students of all ages. The following year, the Indian Department of School Education and Literacy hired three trans teachers for government school positions for the first time in history. Here’s hoping the celebrated Sakhee didis can likewise start well-deserved careers in public health soon.
By Samantha Riedel
Courtesy : Them
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