World Politics Corner: Hijras: An exiled existence

ir own families, eunuchs in the South Asian countries of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, known as hijras, have had to accept a substandard existence on the fringes of mainstream society.

Due to the strong social and religious prejudices aimed against them; ironic since they are, technically, the “cultural descendents” of the esteemed court eunuchs of the Mogul Empire (1526-1858), hijras have had little choice but to band together in “Hijra families.”

Each family typically comprises of one guru (teacher) and five chelas (students). The guru is responsible for guiding chelas under her care towards more pronounced femininity, while the chelas support the household with their incomes as dancers and singers at ceremonies where they are called upon to hand out blessings or as beggars and prostitutes roaming the streets.

In this highly isolated and nuclear setting, necessary in the interest of survival, hijras can become so disaffected and detached from greater society that they begin assuming the surnames of their gurus, in effect shedding themselves of any legal ties to their former lives.

Not all hijras feel compelled to attempt the extreme measure of undergoing physical sex change or nirvan (rebirth). In some cases, hormonal pills and the simple fact of residing in a family structure where they feel accepted is enough to convince them that they are indeed, female in gender.

More so, most hijras are likely to claim that their gender orientation was decided from birth and if given another chance, this is not the life they would have chosen. Unfortunately, they do not have such a chance and to them, it seems better to make the most of what their body and mind tells them they should be, rather than live a life of regret being something they are not.

Perhaps the most common mistake people make is in assuming that most hijras are equivalent to sex workers. This, along with Muslim sentiments that in many places label hijras as the unwanted children of God, is indicative of the vast array of derogatory stereotypes attached to transsexuals in South Asia.

While it is true that many hijras have had to resort to prostitution in order to scrape off a living, it would be negligible to forget the few who have made careers as professionals, government-hired tax collectors and even high-profile politicians.

In 1999, for example, Shabnam Mausi became the first hijra member of the Legislative Assembly in India. In 2005, Sonia Ajmeri ran as an independent for state assembly to represent the 40,000 hijras in Gujarat.

The vast majority of Hijras, however, like most of their fellow South Asians, do not belong to the middle or upper echelons of society. As such, they are most certainly not immune to the inevitable, although unpredictable dangers of life in abject poverty.

Without any real rights, along with the low value society places on them, Hijra communities suffer ungodly deficits in health, housing, education, employment, immigration, law and bureaucratic representation given the confusion over their gender.

This lack in basic necessities is particularly unsettling if we consider that in 1999, the Dai Welfare Society estimated that around half of the hijras had contracted HIV but had no access to proper treatment. Furthermore, the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) reported in 2003 that one in 400 males in India have undergone sex change.

If hijra numbers continue to grow rapidly, the Indian government faces an expanding population of high at-risk individuals. Consequently, it is only logical to expect an even greater sense urgency on the part of government to grant basic rights to hijras, such as medicine and education, if only to prevent more unnecessary deaths from diseases such as HIV. Sadly, this is not always the case, as it is with those considered to be second-rate citizens.

Furthermore, groups like the PUCL that advocate for the rights of hijras are few in numbers. The majority of the time, most hijras are left to fend for themselves against tormentors, such as some local police who have developed a reputation for victimizing hijras who dare to speak out against their injustices.

Not only do the police often fail to protect hijras from abuse, at times they seem to be the primary suspects in this regard. Some police in Bangalore, India, for instance, have been known to rob hijras of all their belongings or implicate them in crimes without having to worry about being ratted out and subsequently reprimanded.

After all, who is going to vouch for someone deemed too lowly to be entitled to any rights whatsoever? In this scenario, the police force almost resembles a state-funded mechanism for promulgating the torture and exploitation of a group of people.

Regardless of whether governments in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have reservations about with the lifestyles chosen by the Hijras, this is not an issue of preference.

Government, especially in a supposedly democratic state such as India, is certainly not at liberty to choose when and where it upholds the basic value of human dignity. There is a reason why commodities such as access to rudimentary healthcare or protection from discrimination are called “basic” rights. If they were not universally regarded as applicable to every individual, we would all be forced to live in isolation and fear of one another.

Since we are fortunate enough not to live in this reality, it should only be fair that hijras get to say the same some day.

E-mail Kyle at:

kcruz@knox.edu