Corona Chronicles: Intersex Persons' COVID-19 Lockdown Stories

Released in September 2020, this booklet illustrates the challenges faced by intersex persons during the Covid-19 lockdown imposed by the Indian government in March 2020. It was published by Solidarity Foundation, a Bengaluru-based trust working with sex workers as well as sexual and gender minorities, in collaboration with Heinrich Böll Stiftung India, a foundation focusing on ecology, sustainability and reform policy.According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “intersex people are born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies.” During the first Covid-19 lockdown in India, notes Corona Chronicles, several persons with differences in sex development failed to access the required healthcare support due to “minimal knowledge about their specific problems and needs.”The booklet presents the first-person narratives of eight intersex persons (with some of their names changed) from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, recorded through telephonic conversations during the six-month period from March to August 2020. They were conducted by intersex and trans rights activists Gangabhavani M. and Shaktishree Maya, who also present their experiences as intersex persons in the booklet. The narratives were transcribed by Neeraja Sajan, a doctoral candidate at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, along with Challa Sudha Rani, a Hyderabad-based NGO consultant and trainer. The booklet was edited by C.K. Meena, a Bengaluru-based writer, journalist and editor.The following are excerpts from the eight conversations that illustrate some of the experiences of intersex persons during the lockdown:I am an intersex person but I was forced to identify myself as a transgender woman because nobody in our society knows what intersex is. In this COVID-19 situation, I am struggling because I have no ration card or secure shelter to stay in...