Doctors for Equity

Overview

Doctors for Equity project builds on Sangath’s ongoing participatory work with the LGBTQIA+ community. This project aims to train medical educators across different parts of North India on LGTBQIA+ inclusive health care. This was done through a national-level consultation followed by a series of training sessions in medical colleges across northern India. The training workshops were conducted by project co-leads who are from the LGBTQIA+ community and/or have expertise in delivering such sessions, in medical education and LGBTQIA+ health research. 

Rationale

The LGBTQIA+ communities in India face unequal access to healthcare which is often not affirmative in nature while being disproportionately affected by chronic and communicable diseases. One major obstacle in addressing these inequities is the lack of culturally informed competency-based medical education on LGBTQIA+ affirmative health provision among Indian medical graduates. Recent policy developments such as the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and directives from the National Medical Commission (medical education regulator) mandating LGBTQIA+ affirmative medical education provide an opportunity to address this obstacle, especially within the context of the competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum currently being followed in India. However, there is a lack of a clear roadmap to achieve the goal of queer and trans-affirmative medical education, especially at the foundational level.

Progress till date

Doctors for Equity has successfully worked on the implementation of the competencies on LGBTQIA+ affirmative health provision, developed through a national-level consultation and two virtual consultations. A series of three one-day training sessions were conducted in three medical colleges across Northern India, namely, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Jodhpur, Era’s Lucknow Medical College, and Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar. The training focused on the developed competencies, basics of sex, gender, sexuality, and LGBTQIA+ affirmative care using innovative methods and interactive activities.

Partner/s

• Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India

• UCMS Delhi, India

• University of Chicago, Illinois, USA