UN praise for Hijra recognition

“It recognises that transgender population exists,” Steve Kraus said at a press conference on the sidelines of an Asia- Pacific AIDS congress being held in the Thai capital Bangkok.

He spoke of Bangladesh’s successes in the fight against HIV/AIDS, particularly early interventions in the case of intra-vienous drug-users, helping the country to keep prevalence below 0.1 percent. “We are pleased to note that (recognising Hijra)”, he said, while criticising the stigma attached to homosexuality, drug-users, and sex workers, identified by the UN as barriers to HIV response. The government on Nov 11 officially recognised the 'hijra' or transgender people as the ‘third gender’ to bring the secretive group out in the social mainstream. Officially, they are about 10,000 of them, but activists claim the number is higher. The recognition is being seen as a landmark decision for a conservative Bangladesh, where sexual and reproductive health rarely talked about even by policymakers. The ‘third gender’ recognition will allow a 'hijra' to choose the option of being recognised as ‘she or he’, said ruling Awami League lawmaker Tarana Halim, who first raised the issue in Parliament over two years back. Talking to bdnews24.com on the sidelines of the Bangkok meet, she said many of the hijras in Bangladesh were biologically male but preferred to a female identity. Henceforth, their gender would be entered in passports or national ID cards, she said. The recognition will give them the right to property. “Now they will be able to choose their gender. If they are male, they will inherit more property than a female as per Bangladesh law." Even their families in Bangladesh do not acknowledge their hormonal or chromosomal abnormalities. They stay isolated and only mix with their peers and finally end up as a sex worker to manage their living. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the hijra population accounted for 2.1 percent of last year’s 338 new HIV infections. “Now they are recognised. They will come forward and enjoy government facilities. It will increase their job opportunities also,” the MP said. Being unidentified, she said, they were stigmatised and vulnerable to abuse and exploitation that ultimately rose the risk of being HIV infections. The government allocated separate budget for their education and training for the first time in this fiscal year. Bangladesh's neighbours India, Nepal and Pakistan have already given them that recognition to end their discrimination in all spheres including education, health and housing.