Stakeholder Workshop for development of online grievance redressal portal for trans and intersex individuals in Kerala

A stakeholder workshop was conducted on November 13, 2024, at the State Health Systems Resource Centre Kerala for the study titled ‘Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a State Level Interactive Online Portal for monitoring, and addressing the health issues and grievances of Transgender and Intersex communities in Kerala: An Implementation Research’ . The main objective of the workshop was to present the qualitative findings from formative research and to discuss the development and implementation of the Health and Grievance Monitoring Portal for Transgender and Intersex Communities in Kerala.

The meeting brought together key stakeholders, including officials from the Directorate of Health Services (DHS), the National Health Mission (NHM), and the Digital University of Kerala (DUK), members of the Kerala Transgender Justice Board, Community Link Workers (CLWs), and Transgender and intersex community members. The meeting was helmed by Dr. V Jithesh, Executive Director, SHSRC-K along with Dr. Manju Madhavan, Research Officer, SHSRC-K, Dr. Rajasree Research SHSRC-K Assistant and Dr. Sruthi. V, Research Assistant, SHSRC-K.

The session began with a welcome speech and an introduction to the workshop by Dr. V Jithesh, Executive Director, SHSRC-K, followed by the project summary presented by Dr Manju Madhavan, Research Officer, SHSRC-K. Dr. Manju Madhavan also delivered a presentation on formative research findings which provided valuable insights into the challenges and needs of transgender and intersex communities, setting the stage for a focused discussion on the portal’s components. Mr. Umasankar, Senior Research Associate at DUK also shared the digital expertise, outlining the portal features. The group then engaged in a dynamic discussion on the portal's features, its operationalization, data protection and privacy, mandatory and non-mandatory details, roles for administrative and monitoring officers, user registration process, and ensuring gender affirmativeness.