SAHAS means courage. For two and a half years, the project brought health care, crisis support and government schemes together in one place for transgender and gender-diverse persons, so that no one had to go from office to office on their own.

Our team worked with each person on whatever they needed most:

Health: HIV and syphilis testing, TB and NCD screening, and linking everyone who tested positive to treatment
Counselling: for HIV risk, mental health, treatment, family problems and crises
Crisis response: help with violence, domestic abuse, police matters, medical emergencies and shelter
Documents and schemes: Aadhaar, PAN, Voter ID, TG cards, Ayushman Bharat, pensions, ration cards and bank accounts
Gender-affirming care: counselling and referrals to doctors who would treat people with respect

We also held sensitisation meetings with the police, legal services authorities, hospitals, hotels and transport companies, so that people would be treated better when they asked for help.

What SAHAS did in its final year (March 2025 – February 2026)

485 new community members registered: 420 transwomen, 34 non-binary persons and 31 transmen
1,073 HIV tests, and all 20 people found HIV positive were linked to treatment
1,993 counselling sessions
618 crisis cases registered, and every one of them resolved
68 transgender identity cards received, out of 81 applications
20 people referred for gender-affirming care

The work of SAHAS now continues under our new project, SAMARTHYA.