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July 4, 2015; New Delhi: For the transgender (TG) and Hijra communities, visibility is the biggest challenge as it invites derision and discrimination from people and compounds their problems. This sentiment was echoed by the representatives of the sexual minorities in India at the Third National Hijra Habba or the ‘Transgender Festival’ held in the New Delhi.

Jul 03, 2015; New Delhi: For the transgender (TG) and Hijra communities, visibility is the biggest challenge as it invites derision and discrimination from people and compounds their problems. This sentiment was echoed by the representatives of the sexual minorities in India at the Third National Hijra Habba or the ‘Transgender Festival’ held in the New Delhi.

July 2, 2015; New Delhi: In an attempt to create a broader platform for issues affecting the transgender community in India, the Delhi-based India HIV/AIDS Alliance organised the Third National Hijra Habba 2015 in New Delhi on June 30. The event was intended to not only welcome the formal status of transgenders as the third gender following the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment last year but also to address the factors that still prevent the community from accessing the welfare measures they are entitled to.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday reaffirmed his opposition to laws that criminalize homosexuality. “I staunchly oppose the criminalization of homosexuality,” said Ban during an event in the Indian capital of New Delhi that marked the 70th anniversary of the U.N.’s founding. “I speak out because laws criminalizing consensual, adult same-sex relationships violate basic rights to privacy and to freedom from discrimination.”

On the intervening night of 3 and 4 November 2013, while the rest of the country geared up to celebrate Diwali, the lives of 14 individuals in Hassan, Karnataka turned upside down. The Karnataka Police charged these 14 health workers, who identified with the female gender, under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) — the largest arrest under the section in independent India.

The December 11 verdict has made our already vulnerable community even more vulnerable to violence at the hands of police. I was threatened and assaulted so badly for being gay that I have lost the ability to hear from my right ear,” said one of the members of the LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender) during a conference on increase in violence and discrimination cases against sexual minorities since the Section 377 verdict in 2013. Notably, the Apex Court refused to review Section 377 of IPC which upholds criminalisation of homosexuality.

“Unsafe injection practices along with low condom use are putting people who inject drugs at dual risk for HIV. We can only successfully intervene and reach those vulnerable and most at risk if we proactively address existing legal and policy barriers,” James Robertson, executive director, India HIV/AIDS Alliance, said at a national consultation on the disease here.

A national consultation was held in New Delhi today to discuss the emerging challenges faced by India’s drug-using communities. Harsh laws, policies and practices that punish drug users only perpetuate the harms of drug use, and there is increasing evidence that India’s drug laws stifle the country’s HIV response.

Activists are concerned about the Indian Government’s decision to merge its AIDS control and health and welfare departments. Shaleen Rakesh, director of technical support at India HIV/AIDS Alliance, said: “We are concerned about how this will affect efforts targeted at key risk populations, such as female sex workers and gay men, especially since they’re not legally protected and often criminalised.”

In a move that has shocked several AIDS experts in the country the Health Ministry has decided to merge the Department of AIDS Control (DAC) with the main Ministry. This decision comes a month after the Health Minister’s controversial statements against sex education and condom use. Speaking about the move to The Hindu Union Health Secretary Lov Verma said on Wednesday: “DAC will cease to exist as an independent unit and will be merged with the Ministry. There is no question of shutting down DAC.”

The Supreme Court of India recognised the rights of a two million-strong community that has long been relegated to a life of scorn and humiliation: the transgenders.

The Indian Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would consider a motion to reconsider last December’s controversial ruling that recriminalized homosexuality in the South Asian country.

New Delhi: Senior counsel Anand Grover will move an application on Monday before the Chief Justice of India seeking to take into account the recent Supreme Court judgment creating the “third gender” status for transgenders while considering the curative petition filed by gay rights activists against its verdict criminalizing homosexuality.
This article appeared in Economic Times and World News Network

New Delhi: The transgender community celebrated victory in New Delhi on Sunday as the Supreme Court recognised ‘transgender’ as a third gender.
This article appeared in ANI news, World News Network, The Indian Republic and India Interacts

New Delhi: On December 12 last year, after the Supreme Court set aside a High Court order decriminalising gay sex between consenting adults, activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, reaching out to members of the LGBT community, said they may be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender but they were Indians first.

Hyderabad: The SC verdict, however, does not cover members of other sexual orientations including lesbians, gays and bisexuals.
This article appeared in World News Network.

New Delhi: Right to have family by marrying each other, adopt children. 
This article appeared in Lockerdome, and News Wits.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday ruled transgenders would from now on be treated as a third gender, which is neither male nor female. 

New Delhi: “We have been given a weapon to defend ourselves,” Simran Shaikh, a hijra activist of India HIV/AIDS Alliance, said about the SC judgment which has made the third gender official.
This article appeared in 24dunia, Samachar and Got News Wire.

India’s LGBT community is calling on members to come together during national elections to try to defeat the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “In the absence of any clarification from the party, we will assume that they are not supporting gay rights,” says Shaleen Rakesh, a gay rights activist and director of the India HIV/AIDS Alliance.

New Delhi: “India completed 10 years of the free antiretroviral treatment (ART) program for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients, now covering 768,000 people. 
This article appeared in Kaiser Family Foundation news.

New Delhi: India completed 10 years of the free anti-retroviral treatment (ART) programme for Human Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) patients, now covering 768,000 people. 
This article appeared in Aids portal, Biz News and Yahoo Groups.

New Delhi: More than 300 stakeholders from government, affected communities, media, international agencies, and civil society came together today to mark the completion of 10 years of free antiretroviral treatment (ART) in India. 
This article appeared in Drug Today Online and PR News Wire.

New Delhi: A health expert said TB testing is vital for HIV patients. The twin stigma of TB and HIV often keeps people away from visiting clinics to learn about their TB status, he added.  
This article appeared in Business Standard, IBN7, The Health Site and First Post.

New Delhi: World TB Day is observed every year on March 24th. To mark this occasion, India HIV/AIDS Alliance joins the Department of AIDS Control (DAC) and the Central TB Division (CTD)…
This article appeared in The Telegraph, Zee News, Medicine Man, Headlines India, Bihar Prabha and Bangalore Waves.

New Delhi: Alliance has joined the Department of AIDS Control (DAC) and the Central TB Division (CTD) for creating awareness about the importance of early detection and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) among people living with HIV (PLHIV). 
This article appeared in Indilens.

New Delhi: As the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law banning same-gender sex, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community said they were now vulnerable to “discrimination and violence”.

New Delhi: Holding hands, Arun* and Vijay now share an uncertain future. The law of the land has deemed their status as a couple illegal. 

New Delhi: India’s Supreme Court Wednesday overturned a lower court’s ruling that had decriminalized gay sex, a disappointing surprise setback for the gay-rights movement in this largely conservative country.

New Delhi: India’s Supreme Court overturned a historic lower-court decision on homosexuality Wednesday, making gay sex a crime in the world’s most populous democracy, with violators facing up to 10 years in prison.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court order upholding a 153-year-old law that effectively criminalises gay sex has ignored scientific evidence that homosexuality is not deviant in any sense, but merely a variation in human sexual behaviour, experts and lawyers have said.

New Delhi: It is a forgotten community and an almost forgotten vote bank, but nearly 1 lakh transgenders will be voting in Delhi on December 4. They have just one basic demand, that is to be treated equally.

According to the latest report by the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), while HIV prevalence in India among the general population stands at 0.40 per cent, HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs is as high as 7.17 per cent.

Bangkok, Thailand : It was a conference where the number zero was the hero – or at least, the target. 

Backstage at the ramp walk and dance performance by transgender and hijra community members at the second national Hijra Habba in Delhi, two participants await their turn in the spotlight. 

November 15, 2013, New Delhi: More than 200 stakeholders from government, media, international agencies, transgender and hijra communities, and civil society came together today for the second National Hijra Habba to promote social justice and empowerment for transgender and hijra communities in India.

New Delhi: Demanding social justice and empowerment, a group of transgenders from all over the country interacted with government stakeholders, media and international agencies here Friday.
This article appeared in Zee News.

Learnings from Project ORCHID’s pioneering work on harm reduction in northeast India shows that scale up is possible even in resource poor and conflict ridden settings. 

Mumbai: It’s not often that one stumbles upon a secret language floating around the streets of a busy Indian metropolis, least of all a language that has been alive-and-kicking across the sub-continent for a century or two. 

Transgender activist Abhina Aher talks about her journey from being a boy to a woman, her work for the HIV-positive transgender people and The Dancing Queens, the LGBT dance troupe she founded.

New Delhi: Khushi Kumari had long kept her sexuality a secret, living alone like many of this sprawling city’s gay, lesbian and transgender residents.

Friday was different. In a small corner of the town, sixty different people gathered for a really momentous meet. 

I want to feel safe while I walk down the street. I want men to realize that it is not OK or acceptable to pass lewd comments on me and that I am protected from verbal abuse by law. 

In an ICTC [An information, counselling, and testing centre] in Uttar Pradesh, transgender clients are treated with rudeness and disdain – they are like outcastes among the already stigmatised persons living with HIV.

New Delhi: A large number of people from all over the country came together in the Capital on Sunday to take part in a community run to raise awareness about the continued support needed to address the prevalence of HIV among high-risk groups.

New Delhi: Nearly thousand people, including transgenders, sex workers and HIV positive people, ran for over three kilometres on Sunday in south Delhi to create awareness and to support HIV-positive people.

December 3, 2012, New Delhi : Celebrities, Government Representatives, Activists, Students and Supporters From all Walks of Life Observed World AIDS Day 

New Delhi: Nearly a thousand people, including transgenders, sex workers and HIV-positive people, ran for over three kilometres on Sunday in south Delhi to create awareness and to support HIV-positive people.

New Delhi: India may have managed to reduce HIV infections by 50 per cent in the past decade, but support to the community is still to pick up keeping in mind the social stigma attached to it.

New Delhi,: Residents of New Delhi, from all walks of life, took part in a marathon on Sunday, a day after World AIDS Day was observed across the country. 

New Delhi: Nearly thousand people, including transgenders, sex workers and HIV positive people, ran for over three kilometres Sunday in south Delhi to create awareness and to support HIV-positive people.

AIDS continues to be a word that generates more anxiety than awareness. Stigma against those living with HIV/AIDS remains the grim reality.

Coimbatore : Around 70 people participated in the advocacy meeting for women living with HIV/AIDS and transgenders, organised by Palmyrah Workers Development Society (PWDS) …

Madurai: Cervical cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer among women but it is easily and treatable, and women affected by AIDS are more prone to cervical cancer — five times more than normal women.

Issue The startling spread of HIV/AIDS pandemic to newer areas has caught the Government unawares. 

With the loss of their traditional role in Indian society, hijras find themselves marginalised at every step. 

The startling spread of HIV/AIDS pandemic to newer areas has caught the Government unawares. 

Vijaywada: Empowering the common man to be able to demand their right from Government will be our main aim said Vasavya Mahila Mandali (VMM) Secretary G. Reshma on Thursday.

New Delhi: Over a decade ago, a 14-year-old Parsi boy ran away from his home in Dadar Parsi Colony in Mumbai as his parents did not accept the fact that he was gay. 

The transgender, ‘hijra’ or ‘kinnar’ community is visible as usually its members can be spotted easily by way of their attire and mannerisms.

This article appeared in World News Network, South Asia Mail Weekly, Modern Ghana and Bihar and Jharkhand News Service.

Raveena Bariha, the fire brand graduate tribal hijra activist from Chhattisgarh (a relatively backward state of India) is lovingly called the chhota bomb and chhota rocket.

Mumbai: Abheena Aher’s graduation and post-graduation certificates refer to her as a ‘male’. The 35-year-old transgender activist, who completed her post-graduation in Mumbai, didn’t have a choice.

Pehchan, in association with India HIV/AIDS Alliance, recently organized a national consultation, aptly called Hijra Habba (Habba is a Kannada word meaning festival), in Delhi…

Violence against trasngenders is routinised. “It begins at our own homes from biological family members, relatives, neighbours; in educational institutions and the friend circle,” says Akkai Padmashali from Sangama in Bangalore.

New Delhi: On Saturday, members of India’s transgender and hijra community convened in New Delhi for the first Hijra Habba in order to discuss ways to ameliorate the persistent discrimination that marginalizes Indian transgenders.

While the country’s health system, schemes and officials are still unfriendly to the members of the transgender (TG) and the eunuch community, a different gender definitely not by their own choice has pushed them to the status of being a marginalised section.

Now they can go for any distance learning course at the varsity. Education will not be a far fetched dream for transgender and hijra communities any more as IGNOU has opened admissions for distance education in all streams even for the “other” category.

New Delhi: Members from the transgender and eunuch community Saturday came together, demanding equality and special privileges for themselves to live with dignity in society.

Seema, a husband and father of two, gets ready for another night of work on the streets of the Indian capital, placing two halves of a yellow sponge ball into empty bra cups.

New Delhi: “Is it a sin to be born a hijra?” asked Sita, a member of the transgender community, narrating her story of pain and trauma at a public hearing on “Social Inclusion and Access to Justice to Transgender Community” here on Saturday.

New Delhi: Organisations working with groups vulnerable to HIV/AIDS came together on 29 November at YMCA New Delhi for an event organised by the Pehchan programme to commemorate World AIDS Day 2011.

New Delhi : Calling for a continued and expanded effort to protect and support Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM), transgender and ‘hijra’ community in the country.

New Delhi: To create awareness on HIV-TB co-infection among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV), non-government organisation Global Health Advocates, India, organised a workshop.

New Delhi: It took more than a decade for Abhina Aher, a transgender to finally be allowed to be in her skin.