From the fringes to the margins: The Hijra dilemma

Inclusion of the Hijra gender category in the latest population and housing census was supposed to be a landmark event heralding the end of the discrimination against the community which has been pushed to the very margins of society.

While the move was roundly lauded, it also opened a can of worms the authorities had till then managed to keep a tight lid on.

The latest census showed the Hijra population to be 12,629 Hijra people. But without any legal definition of Hijra in place, the numbers generated much debate: Why was it so low? Who was included? And more importantly, who was excluded?

Many Hijra and transgender groups have said the numbers should be much higher – some citing as high as 500,000 even.

The government in November 2013 recognised the Hijra community as the third gender and the Ministry of Social Welfare published a gazette notification in January 2014 stating that the Hijra community shall be recognised as the "Hijra sex/gender" (Hijra lingo).

The recognition did not deal with other communities and individuals who have non-normative gender and sexual identities or do not conform to the gender assigned to them at birth. None of these individuals belongs to the Hijra culture.

Neither the gazette notification nor the relevant Cabinet decision set out or resulted in a clear explanation of the meaning of diverse gender categories. Thus different government authorities were free to carry out identification processes as they chose.

Even the media popularised the use of the term "third gender," muddying the waters further.

The community leaders maintain that Hijra is not a biological characteristic nor a gender identity. It simply means members of a community.

Joya Sikder, a transgender rights activist and also president of Somporker Noya Setu (SNS), a transgender rights organisation, said the government recognised the Hijra identity as an umbrella term.

"A Hijra and a transgender are not the same. A transgender person, for instance, is defined as people who was assigned one of the binary genders at birth and then began to identify as the other one. The Hijra, on the other hand, is a community. We have our own customs and traditions, and we live under a guru."

Ananya Banik, a member of the Hijra community and a rights worker, said there were problems not only with the survey but also the "ignorant" use of Hijra as an umbrella term to designate all groups of individuals consisting of intersex individuals, castrated men and transgender women (assigned male at birth).

Different gender markers are currently in use across different official forms and identity documents, such as Hijra/Others/Tritiyo lingo (third gender), but it is not clear which specific gender identities are included within the "other" and "tritiyo lingo" categories.

"We conducted a survey funded by Global Funding in 2010. At the time, there was a conflict between the three main Hijra communities in the country. While this made it difficult for us to identify all the Hijras, we still had a number which was around 10,000. So in 11 years, that number should have logically been higher,"Ananya said, adding, "But if you are talking about the number of Hijras, then, the first question should be: Who is a real Hijra?"

A few Hijras are now referring to themselves as transformed women (rupantorito naari).

The 'Hijra' identity is bestowed after induction into the Hijra tradition as they gain positions of disciples and wards under a Hijra elder, known as their Guru.

Hijras have their own culture and customs, and a community dialect known as Ulti. Other gender-diverse people do not have the same culture, customs and beliefs as those held by the Hijra community, thus cannot be defined by the term. 

Members of the Hijra community also want to express themselves as women, meaning it is not always a biological case.

Speaking to the Bangla daily Prothom Alo earlier this year, one of the founding members and Executive Director of Bandhu Social Welfare Society, a gender rights group, Shale Ahmed, said, "The term 'Third Gender' was not used in the government gazette notification. Instead, the government has designated hijra individuals as 'hijra lingo (hijra gender).' Since then, there is a lack of uniformity in documents, as some use hijra and some other third gender."

Shale, too, emphasised the urgent need to have a clear definition of who the Hijras are, adding that the community and its activists had accepted "transgender" term in pushing social issues but only out of an egalitarian sense.

A matter of identity esasure

A recent press release issued by the Parliament Secretariat said it recommended taking necessary steps after conducting a medical examination to identify "real" "third gender" individuals, issue an ID card and hold a meeting with the home ministry to prevent "harassment."

The issue of "fake" Hijras has often cropped up in the media and it's an issue that, according to Ananya, needs to be looked at first.

The move prompted two rights bodies to appeal to the High Court to move against the government's order of physical and medical examinations to prove one's gender as a Hijra.

A 2016 report by Human Rights Watch found that after the social welfare ministry had invited Hijra individuals for government employment in 2014, the applicants were put through a humiliating and draining session of proving their gender.

They were asked inappropriate questions while physicians told non-medical staffers to report on their genitals after patting them down.

The private photographs of 12 Hijras who had passed the interviews and had to sit through the medical exams were then released on print and online platforms, claiming that those were really men and thus "fake" Hijras.

In the absence of any guidance on how to identify members of the Hijra community and Hijra culture, relevant authorities often resorted to physical examinations to verify whether a person is an 'authentic Hijra.'

In this regard, Ananya said, "Is there a test to 100% prove the sexual nature of a man or woman? I will only take a test to prove I'm a Hijra if others take the test to prove they are a man or a woman."

The medical test, if it comes to fruition, may see the next census number for Hijras fall even further. If allowed, even more, will be left behind in the shadows, back to where they had just begun emerging from.

"When I was born, I was named Gautam. As I grew, I transitioned towards becoming Ananya. I had to take a lot of hormone supplements for that and it wasn't easy, but I did it.

But our community elders [gurus] always told us never to mention that we had transitioned. We could say we were Hijras, but not that we had taken any medicines or surgeries. We perpetuated the myth of the Hijras," she said.

Now, Ananya thinks that Hijras, transgenders and intersex are all the same, but there is an important distinction: the one of community.

"Many people have come and said they aren't Hijras but transgender. They haven't uplifted the community, but have rather profited off of it. They have settled for asylums abroad, using that as their trump card," she said.

Doctor Noor Riffat Ara, who made headlines for starting a dedicated room for Hijras at Dhamrai Upazila Hospital, said it was possible to determine whether a person was Hijra or not through medical tests. 

"You can tell whether a person is a Hijra or not by examining their attitude and behaviour. Then there is the medical examination of their genitalia."

Pointed out that many could not afford the surgeries needed to complete a full transition, she said there were medical tests which could determine the level of hormones – this was another marker.

Enumerators of the national census said they thus mostly relied on "Hijra pallis" or areas designated especially for Hijras to come up with their number.

But there were other issues at play as well, including record floods which delayed or accounted for minor distortions during the survey period.

On those, like Ananya, who remained to fight the good fight, she said even for them there was no point telling the national census surveyors that they identified as Hijras.

"Many may not have said they were Hijras. Why should they? What benefit do you get from being a Hijra? The Tk600 stipend? That isn't even enough to buy medicines. The prices of almost everything have increased, but our allowance, for those of us above 64, hasn't increased," she said.

Joya also agreed that many may not have disclosed their identity to surveyors - perhaps they lived with a family who did not know or maybe they were not reached - she said the urgent need of the day was for visible development.

"We always talk to policymakers who say they will take things to parliament. But most often they don't do that. And then, our media and our people are not sensitised to our issues either," she said.

Despite a clear definition present, some official identification documents and institutional forms have included Hijra, other, or third gender as identity options.

The Department of Immigration and Passports since 2014 has provided for the third category of 'other,' as a gender marker option on passport application forms, in addition to 'male' and 'female'.

In June 2015, the Bangladesh Bank issued a circular requesting all scheduled banks and financial institutions to include the Hijra community within their SME (small and medium enterprises) loan activities, but at least two state-owned commercial banks, Sonali Bank Limited and Janata Bank Limited listed 'third gender' ('tritiyo lingo') as an option in their account application forms.

Real change is still far

On the ground, Bangladesh has had a rapid change in the way it treats members of the Hijra community.

In a slew of measures over the years chalked out to mainstream the Hijra community - one of the most disenfranchised, demonised and vulnerable groups in the country - the government offered tax cuts to companies which ensured members of the community made up 10% of the workforce, social protection in terms of allowances and training to teach more sought after skills.

Ananya points to busy fashion houses in the capital's glitziest corners now employing Hijra security guards and the number of Hijras who work in her beauty parlour.

A local TV station also hired its first transgender show host. Bangladesh also had its first elected transgender upazila parishad chairman. The country now also boasts its first madrasa for transgender people.

But all this mainstreaming means nothing if those on the ground fall prey to age-old systems of abuse and years of being on the sidelines.

At a dialogue organised last week by SNS, Mizanul Haque Mitu, vice president of Paddakuri Hijra Sangha, said, "No one talks about the discrimination we face in the workplace. We face wage discrimination and sometimes sexual harassment from colleagues."

Another speaker, S Srabonti, said people of the transgender community continued to face discrimination in accessing healthcare in mainstream hospitals and the most basic of things, like toilets and sanitation.

The government's measures have also failed.

In the current budget (Fiscal Year 2022), the government for the first time offered a 5% tax cut for companies which employ at least 100 transgender persons.

Speaking to The Business Standard earlier, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) President Rizwan Rahman said entrepreneurs wanted to employ transgender but the 10% of total manpower or 25 persons in total makes the tax benefit difficult to get.

The DCCI president mentioned that entrepreneurs failed to fulfil the earlier condition of employing 100 transgenders to be eligible for the tax exemption given in the FY22 budget.

"A good initiative was not realised due to such unrealistic conditions," he said.

Rizwan also said none had taken the responsibility to develop transgender people as skilled workers.

Mostafiz Uddin, managing director of Denim Expert Limited, a Chattogram-Karnaphuli EPZ-based denim maker, is somewhat of a pioneer in employing persons of the Hijra community in his garment factory.

"But it was not an easy job. We had planned to employ at least 15 people but we found only nine interested in doing jobs in the apparel industry," he said.

Rani Chowdhury, a youth volunteer of Bandhu Social Welfare Society, at a discussion, said, "Most of the Hijras in our country are far behind in terms of education because they face discrimination from their childhood from the teachers and fellow students. That is why they do not have the opportunity to study. Therefore, more emphasis should be given to the educational opportunities of Hijras."

This story was written and produced as part of a media skills development programme delivered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The content is the sole responsibility of the author and the publisher.