Gender reassignment surgery not feasible for many in Vidarbha: Activists

Nagpur: While the country was celebrating 75th Independence Day, Rajrajeshwari, earlier known as Anand, said that she celebrated freedom from the male body with which she was living for the last 31 years.
The youngster from Saoner found “new and true identity” recently after going trough the first gender reassignment surgery (GRS) at Acharya Vinoba Bhave Rural Hospital, Sawangi (Meghe), in Wardha. While doctors claimed that many such surgeries are now happening in the Nagpur city, activists who work for the welfare of transgender community claimed that it’s not that easy at all.
Rajrajeshwari said, “I have a feeling of being reborn. I was born as a boy but right from childhood I had a feeling this body is not mine. Even family members refused to accept me as who I was.”
Dr Pradip Patil, head of psychiatry department of the hospital, supported Rajrajeshwari and managed to perform the surgery at the hospital. “There are many such youths who have such psychiatric issues. One in 500 adults may fall somewhere on a transgender spectrum. But gender dysphoria remains largely under reported in our society,” he said.
The surgery requires multidisciplinary approach — at least six months of observation by a qualified psychiatrist, series of plastic surgeries and a tedious legal process.
But not all those who have accepted they have gender dysphoria and wish to get this surgery done are as lucky as Rajrajeshwari. Activists said that the government hospitals don’t have any such provision and it’s not affordable for them in private hospitals.
According to Anand Chandrani, founder of Sarathi Trust, needy people in Central India prefer to go to Raipur, Delhi and there is a long waiting list in Mumbai too. “It requires earnings of a lifetime to conduct these surgeries. Many of the transgenders don’t have that much money,” said Chandrani.
Chandrani further said that it’s a problem of life and death for these people. “Despite approaching the district collectors many times with a demand to provide some support for such surgeries, we got nothing but only assurances,” said the activist.
Plastic surgeon Dr Pranam Sadawarte said that several such surgeries happen on and off in Nagpur in the private set-up. “It’s a long process. There is no doubt that plastic surgeons play the most important role. Making facial changes, creating breasts and female genitals is done in phases. Next come the endocrinologists who give hormone therapy to bring the desired changes in the body,” he said.
Surgeon Dr Yashwant Lamture said that such surgeries are performed only in 51 hospitals across the country. “It requires super-specialty approach. I am happy that we have done a good job in giving identity to Rajrajeshwari. I think this surgery is a milestone for charity hospitals in Central India,” he said.