Denied RT-PCR Test, Called 'Mental' By Hospital Staff, Says India's First Transgender Principal

Manobi Bandyopadhyay, the country's first transgender college principal, has alleged that she was denied an RT-PCR test in Kolkata's Bangur Hospital. She further alleged that the hospital staff called her mental and shooed her away.

The incident took place on Saturday, June 12. Bandyopadhyay alleged that she called up many hospitals in the city on June 12 and June 13 to get an RT-PCR test done, reported News18. She went to Bangur Hospital at around 12 pm along with her husband to get a test done as she had been suffering from fever. While her husband got tested, the hospital refused to carry out a test on her. The incident has caused severe mental distress, she added. Her husband tested positive.

Made To Wait Outside Superintendent's Office

Bandyopadhyay, who is also the vice-chairman of the West Bengal Transgender Development Board, showed her ID card and with the help of the police went to the hospital superintendent's office. However, it was of no use as after waiting for a long time outside, she was told that the superintendent was not in.

Meanwhile, the hospital's Superintendent Sishir Naskar said was unaware of Bandyopadhyay being turned away, adding that the hospital has two beds reserved for patients from the transgender community.

Born as Somnath, to a traditional middle-class Bengali family in Naihati, in the suburbs of Kolkata, Bandopadhyay had decided to undergo a sex-change operation a decade ago after being convinced that she was a woman born in a man's body. In 2015, she became India's first transgender college principal after she took charge at Krishnagar Women's College in West Bengal's Nadia district.

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