India, March 13 -- Shazi Ansari, a 22-year-old trans woman from Delhi, spotted a news clipping last year - one that was life-changing. Not only is she pleased with her gender-affirming surgery but she also has a voice that truly matches her identity.

Ansari, who after gender-affirming surgery in 2022 was looking for viable options for trans-voice surgery, was led to JJ Hospital at Nagpada in Mumbai via the news clipping. The upshot was the surgery was free as the hospital had only just launched its Trans-Voice Surgery Department. Ansari was the government-run hospital's first patient to undergo the surgery at the facility.

She said her bills for the gender-affirming surgery in a Delhi hospital went through the roof. "It would have cost ...