Meet 'Vaccine Didi', Chhattisgarh Trans Woman Who Fought All Odds To Ensure Her Community Got COVID Shots

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted the LGBTQ+ community, especially the transgender people. Despite developing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, transgenders faced challenges due to inequitable access and vaccine hesitancy.

Most feared the vaccine reacting badly with sex change hormones and humiliation at the vaccination centres.

Shutting down all these fears, a trans woman from Chattisgarh's Durg district Kanchan Sendre, has been working tirelessly to spearhead the COVID-19 vaccination awareness campaigns among her community. Due to her efforts, 65 transgender people have taken the vaccine shots in the last seven months in the district, The Indian Express reported.

Popularly known as 'Vaccine Didi', Sendre, too, was hesitant about the COVID vaccine earlier as she had undergone a sex reassignment surgery.

"After the first dose, I had fallen sick. But once I was aware of its significance, I wanted everyone from my community to take the shot," Sendre said.

Sendre was convinced about the vaccine's safety through the multiple engagements that she had with the MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity Project team, a USAID-funded initiative that helps the Central and state governments speed up COVID vaccine coverage. The Momentum Project was awarded by USAID to John Snow India Research & Training Institute Inc in 2021.

Fighting Rumours & Other Concerns

According to her, several factors were responsible for the vaccine hesitancy.

"Apart from the usual rumours on social media, the transgender people had some specific concerns. Many of them take sex change hormones, some are HIV positive. They did not know how their bodies would react to it," she said.

In addition, many did not identify the gender mentioned on their identity cards and feared ridicule at vaccination centres.

Sendre has been working for the welfare of her community since 2008. She is a member of the Third Gender Welfare Board of the Chhattisgarh government, and runs an organisation called Sangharsh Samiti, which helps transgender people get jobs, government benefits, and social and economic acceptance.

Because of Sendre's efforts, a vaccination camp for transgender people was held in Durg last December in collaboration with the project and the state government. The benefits went beyond just COVID-19 vaccination.

The trans woman is hopeful her efforts for the vaccination will also benefit her community in other ways. "My life's mission is to pull my community from the margins. I hope this experience of getting vaccinated will encourage trans people to come forward and claim more government benefits as equal members of the society," she said.

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