PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will launch a programme to impart skills to transgender persons and safeguard them against sex-borne ailments, especially HIV/Aids.

“The project will be executed by the social welfare department with technical support of the health department. It aims to create awareness about vulnerability of transgender persons to diseases and impart skills to enable them to work and earn money for their families,” officials said.

They said that the programme would cost Rs200 million. It will target over 1,000 transgender persons in the province by providing them treatment and training in embroidery to earn their livelihood.

Officials said that under the programme, the gurus of transgender persons would be accessed to seek their permission for holding awareness sessions and giving them tips to stay safe from diseases. They added that initially government planned to provide them with Sehat Insaf cards for free treatment at the hospitals but later it was decided that agreement would be signed with the hospitals for their treatment.

They said that transgender persons would be also tested for HIV/Aids, hepatitis and other diseases.

They would be sent for treatment to the hospitals where they would get free investigation as well as medicines.

Project to be executed by social welfare dept with technical support of health dept

Officials contacted by Dawn said that prevalence of HIV/Aids among transgender sex workers was recorded at 7.2 per cent in 2016 during a survey conducted under Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance programme.

They said that situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was not that bad as compared to other cities of the country but it was still alarming given the fact that transgender persons visited different areas in connection with dance and music concerts where they came into sexual contacts with people.

“For this purpose, the support of NGOs will also be enlisted to provide them counselling and persuade them to leave the profession and get training to earn livelihood,” said officials.

They said that it was believed that transgender persons could transmit HIV/Aids to people if they were not checked and treated by the government timely. They said that they would focus on capacity-building of the gurus of the transgender persons because the latter had full control over the former and in the past many such initiatives proved futile as those initiated without proper homework.

Officials said that transgender persons would also be given condoms to stay safe from sexually transmitted infections (STIs). They said that main focus would remain on detection of HIV/Aids among transgender persons and their free treatment at the antiretroviral therapy centres in Peshawar and Kohat.

Officials said that transgender persons, to be located and wooed for skills and training through NGOs, would also be tested for hepatitis B and C and those testing positive would get free diagnostic and curative services.

“The move seeks to put brakes on HIV/Aids in the province as it can snowball into major public health issue in the country,” they said. They said that there were an estimated 123,000 HIV/Aids cases in the country that included 2,727 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The people deported from United Arab Emirates and Middle East on account of testing positive for HIV are also major threat of transmitting the infection to local people, especially their wives,” said officials.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2017