17th April, 2012

SYBIL DANIEL

Lahore, Pakistan
Assist News Service

I had known Nadia (an Urdu name for females) for a long time. Every month "she" would visit our locality, ring doorbells and ask for money.

Then Nadia disappeared for a long time and, after a few months, another member of her "clan" visited our home and told my mother that "Nadia has been murdered by a gang of guys who were mocking her on the street and, upon her cursing them, they were offended and took her life. But no police case was registered as her murder does not matter to them; neither did her life."

Nadia was neither a male nor a female. She belonged to the neglected and underprivileged outcast group known as the "Third Gender" who live lives of squalor in the slums of our society, such as in many underdeveloped and developing countries including Pakistan and India.

They are known as "Hijra" in Hindi, and in Urdu "Eunuch", while in English, they are referred in modern Westerners terminology as male-to-female transgender people. Some of them undergo ritual castration, but the majority do not. Their low social status can result into their easy murder without any repercussions.

Their own families mourn their birth, disown and force them to leave their homes and they reside in the margins of the society with others like themselves. Living under one shabby roof and abandoned by their parents, they start living their lives by depending on each other. They usually dress in Shalwar Kameez (a traditional garb worn by women in Pakistan) and put on heavy make-up, but many look thin and gaunt as most of them live their sad lives under the poverty line.

It is this group of people who face the most discrimination in every field of life, from entering educational institutions, getting employment or receiving medical help. They also find it difficult to find a decent place to live, so they bind together in squalor, and lack the necessities of life.

These members of the "Third Gender", lack protection and often are subject to inhuman behavior by the police towards them. They earn their living in various ways, often by begging and prostitution, or even arriving uninvited at weddings and birth celebrations where they dance in front of the guests until they get paid to go away.

They are subject of mockery and ridicule on the streets. They bear the hooting of teenagers on our streets every day and when one of them dies, often killed by people who hate them, most do not even get a last resting place in local graveyards, usually because local religious leaders are not willing to lead their funeral prayers.

If you ever find one of them on the street and ask about their life in our society, they all have one answer, saying, "I want to do something in life".

Each human, irrespective of their gender, is born into this world and breathes; laughs, sheds tears; gets hungry and angry; and wants justice and peace. They long to feel respected, despite their low social status and desperately would like to belong to a real family in an actual home.

Yet most, in my part of the world, people dishonor and ignore them and treat them unfairly.

There are institutions to protect and fight for the rights of our minorities, including the disabled or displaced, but not many prominent organisations are actively serving and representing those of the "Third Gender" in Pakistan.

In a recent development, the Government of Pakistan has taken a step to recognise their national identity by issuing them with National Identity Cards (NICs) and has promised to fix a quota of employment for them in public sector. However, a recent survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan, shows that 60 per cent of the population does not want to be friends with them, and 45 per cent does not want them in our educational institutions, offices or even around them at all.

Which means that they still have no hope to enter into private sector, which has larger share and opportunities in the economy than the public sector.

They wake up every morning to start the same miserable life, spending each day, one by one, until death comes. We 45 per cent, of the population, can free them from this affliction by accepting their presence around us as human beings merely with biological differences. By doing so we would be taking a step towards meeting the need to grow mature as a society.

This would also mean that people like Nadia would not have to suffer in the way that He/She did. The question is: Are we in Pakistan, ready to yet do this, and possibly save more lives from such a terrible end?

MORE OF WORLDVIEW...  |  more... |