Ghaus Siwani/New Delhi

Dr Aksa Sheikh, nodal officer of Delhi’s Jamia Hamdard Covid Center, has rendered a yeoman’s service in the ongoing Covid pandemic. She along with her team has treated 2,000 patients of Covid-19.

Dr Aksa is no ordinary medico; she happens to be India's first female transgender doctor.

Her story of struggling with her gender identity and making the world accept her reality is an inspiration to many members of the third gender, who are lost in the world.

Dr Aksa says, “Zakir (Her earlier name) is now a thing of the past. My family was very upset. I could not live with two characters. My parents thought I was a boy, but there was a voice inside me that would tell me I am a girl. I kept fighting within myself. After that, I left my home and continued my MBBS degree and then I completely became Aksa.”

She said while living a double life – a woman trapped in the body of a man – she even contemplated ending her life. “Now, Allah has given me an opportunity to save hundreds of lives, says a believer Dr Aksa Sheikh, 28.

 She is currently working in Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi and is designated as in charge of the hospital’s vaccination campaign.

In the second wave of Covid-19, she has so far treated more than 2,000 Covid patients through a telemedicine campaign with the help of a medical social group. Though right now vaccination has been halted in Delhi, as soon as it resumes Dr Aksa will be back in her role as coordinator of the campaign in her hospital.

Dr Aksa hails from Okhla, a Muslim-dominated area of ​​Delhi, where she plans to build a hospital.

“I want to work for humanity; I want to tell society that the status of a person cannot be judged by his gender. People or societies who consider transgender persons as inferior must change their mindset to become better human beings.

Dr Aksa has been educated in Mumbai. She is also associated with Tablighi Jamaat. Her family raised her as a boy and named her Zakir. She always felt different from the inside for 20 years of her existence as Zakir. It was during this time she was completing her MBBS degree.

She was sick and tired of taunts and catcalls for her looking effeminate in a male body. After facing all the difficulties she left Mumbai and came to Delhi where she completed her MD from Jamia Hamdard and started working in the Medical Research Center.

Aksa says she felt like a prisoner living as Zakir till she went for a sex change surgery four years ago to become Aksa and felt liberated.

 Aksa says thought she is happy at her physical transformation too and feels a complete woman but she regrets not being able to bear a child. Before going for sex transformation she spoke to some religious scholars. Aksa says that scholars had different opinions.

“I am sure that I have not committed a sin,” she says.

Like all women, Aksa also wants to marry. She goes to Mumbai but never visits her home. Aksa says she avoids going there to avoid her painful memories getting revived.”When my work is being praised, I know my family also feels happy.”

Aksa is also fighting for the rights of the LGBT community in Delhi. She says that everyone thinks about their community so does she. She says that the transgender community is looked down upon and it makes them go through tough times. People laugh at them.

No one wants to have a relationship with them. The Supreme Court has paved the way for mutual relations, but people still don’t have respect for them. For this reason, Dr Aksa says, she avoids speaking openly about her life.

She says: This is the will of Allah. I never considered myself weaker than anyone. I once thought of committing suicide after I was abused, but then I strengthened myself mentally.

Dr Aksa has also written many books and her articles are published regularly in journals.  She has received the Himalayan Green Award and Nari Shakti Puraskar 2020.

On her newfound celebrity status, Aksa says, “When I was in school, I was ridiculed. Nobody made friends with me. Then I made friends with books. Friendship with books changed my life.”

Aksa is considered a key pillar of success in the vaccination campaign of the transgender community. Since she enjoys a status and commands respect because of her work, transgender people obeyed her and come in large numbers for vaccination.

Dr Aksa also launched a free medical and mental health helpline through the Human Solid Tree Foundation.

The Foundation worked tirelessly during the second wave of the pandemic. Babli from Meerut says that Dr Aksa is the heroine of her transgender community. “She is not a filmi heroine but a real hero,” she said.