YOU ARE A HUMAN- YOU AND I ARE NO DIFFERENT.
YOU ARE A HUMAN, UNIQUE AND KIND.
YOU ARE A HUMAN- DIVINE IN ITSELF.

YOU ARE WELCOME TO THIS WORLD, YOU ARE WELCOME TO OUR HEARTS...."

Today If they are neglected, if they became prostitutes, beggars or pub dancers, if they are treating you rude, if they are low profile ... Who is responsible for it?

Ans: WE, OUR SOCIETY, OUR THINKING.. And also their Family.

Transgenders are not sex object, they are not bad luck or taboo,they are not ordinary, they are the real Gems. They are a miracle of God.
They feel, they sense, they think, they dream, they love, they care... They are no less than any of us.
Understand them, Support them. Welcome them. ..Give them a warm Smile."

- Aswathi K H

HIJRA:

In South Asia, a Hijra (for translations) is a transgender individual who was assigned male at birth. They are also known as Aravani, Aruvani or Jagappa. In many languages of India, especially outside North-West India, other terms are used such as Thirunangai in Tamil or chhakka in Kannada.

The hijras are officially recognized as third gender by some governments, being considered neither completely male nor female. Hijras have a recorded history in the Indian subcontinent from antiquity onwards as suggested by the Kama Sutra period. This history features a number of well-known roles within subcontinental cultures, part gender-liminal, part spiritual and part survival.

Many hijras live in well-defined and organised all-hijra communities, led by a guru. These communities have sustained themselves over generations by "adopting" boys who are in abject poverty, rejected by, or flee, their family of origin. Many work as sex workers for survival.

The word "hijra" is a Hindi-Urdu word, derived from the Semitic Arabic root hjr in its sense of "leaving one's tribe". The Indian usage has traditionally been translated into English as "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite", where "the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition." However, in general hijras are born male, only a few having been born with intersex variations.Some Hijras undergo an initiation rite into the hijra community called nirwaan, which refers to the removal of the penis, scrotum and testicles.

Since the late 20th century, some hijra activists and Western non-government organizations(NGOs) have lobbied for official recognition of the hijra as a kind of "third sex" or "third gender", as neither man nor woman.Hijras have successfully gained this recognition in Bangladesh and are eligible for priority in education. In India, the Supreme Court in April 2014 recognised hijra and transgender people as a 'third gender' in law. Nepal, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have all legally accepted the existence of a third gender, with India including an option for them on passports and certain official documents.

History

The ancient Kama Sutra mentions the performance of fellatio by feminine people of a third sex (tritiya prakriti).This passage has been variously interpreted as referring to men who desired other men, so-called eunuchs ("those disguised as males, and those that are disguised as females"), male and female trans people ("the male takes on the appearance of a female and the female takes on the appearance of the male"), or two kinds of biological males, one dressed as a woman, the other as a man.

During the era of the British Raj, authorities attempted to eradicate hijras, whom they saw as "a breach of public decency." Anti-hijra laws were repealed; but a law outlawing castration, a central part of the hijra community, was left intact, though rarely enforced. Also during British rule in India they were placed under the Criminal Tribes Act 1871 and labelled a "criminal tribe", hence subjected to compulsory registration, strict monitoring and stigmatized for a long time; after independence however they were denotified in 1952, though the centuries-old stigma continues.

In religion

Bahuchara Mata is a Hindu goddess with two unrelated stories both associated with transgender

behavior. One story is that she appeared in the avatar of a princess who castrated her husband because he would run in the woods and act like a woman rather than have sex with her. Another story is that a man tried to rape her, so she cursed him with impotence. When the man begged her forgiveness to have the curse removed, she relented only after he agreed to run in the woods and act like a woman. The primary temple to this goddess is located in Gujarat and it is a place of pilgrimage for hijras, who see Bahuchara Mata as a patroness.

Hijras and Lord Shiva

One of the forms of Lord Shiva is a merging with Parvati where together they are Ardhanari, a god that is half Shiva and half Parvati. Ardhanari has special significance as a patron of hijras, who identify with the gender ambiguity.

Hijras in the Ramayana

In some versions of the Ramayana, when Rama leaves Ayodhya for his 14-year exile, a crowd of his subjects follow him into the forest because of their devotion to him. Soon Rama notices this, and gathers them to tell them not to mourn, and that all the "men and women" of his kingdom should return to their places in Ayodhya. Rama then leaves and has adventures for 14 years. When he returns to Ayodhya, he finds that the hijras, being neither men nor women, have not moved from the place where he gave his speech. Impressed with their devotion, Rama grants hijras the boon to confer blessings on people during auspicious inaugural occasions like childbirth and weddings. This boon is the origin of badhai in which hijras sing, dance, and give blessings.

Hijras in the Mahabharata

Mahabharata includes an episode in which Arjun, a hero of the epic, is sent into an exile. There he assumes an identity of a eunuch-transvestite and performs rituals during weddings and childbirths that are now performed by hijras.

In the Mahabharata, before the Kurukshetra War, Iravan offers his lifeblood to goddess Kali to ensure the victory of the Pandavas, and Kali agrees to grant him power. On the night before the battle, Iravan expresses a desire to get married before he dies. No woman was willing to marry a man doomed to die in a few hours, so Arjuna as Brihinala marries him. In South India, hijras claim Iravan as their progenitor and call themselves "aravanis."

Each year in Tamil Nadu, during April and May, hijras celebrate an eighteen-day religious festival. Koovagam in the Ulundurpet taluk in Villupuram district, and is devoted to the deity Koothandavar, who is identified with Aravan. During the festival, the aravanis reenact a story of the wedding of Lord Krishna and Lord Aravan, followed by Aravan's subsequent sacrifice. They then mourn Aravan's death through ritualistic dances and by breaking their bangles. An annual beauty pageant is also held, as well as various health and HIV or AIDS seminars. Hijras from all over the country travel to this festival. A personal experience of the hijras in this festival is shown in the BBC Three documentary India's Ladyboys and also in the National Geographic Channel television series Taboo.

The aravani temple is located in the village

Hijras in Islam

There is evidence that Indian hijras identifying as Muslim also incorporate aspects of Hinduism. Still, despite this syncretism, Reddy (2005) notes that a hijra does not practice Islam differently from other Muslims and argues that their syncretism does not make them any less Muslim. Reddy (2003) also documents an example of how this syncretism manifests: in Hyderabad, India a group of Muslim converts were circumcised, something seen as the quintessential marker of male Muslim identity.

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A Journey Of Pain And Beauty: On Becoming Transgender In India

Abhina Aher was born a boy biologically and is now a hijra, a member of an ancient transgender community in India. Of her painful physical and psychological transformation, Aher remembers now: "I just wanted to become a beautiful butterfly."

Julie McCarthy/NPR.

The signs came early that Abhina Aher was different.

Born a boy biologically and given the male name Abhijit, Aher grew up in a middle-class neighborhood of Mumbai, India. The son of a single mother who nurtured a love of dance, Aher would watch enthralled as she performed.

"I used to love to wear the clothes that my mother used to wear — her jewelry, her makeup," Aher, now 37, recalls. "That is something which used to extremely fascinate me."

Draped in a bright sari, gold earrings and painted nails, Aher is, by outward appearance, a female, preferring to be addressed as a woman.

She has undertaken a long and arduous journey, rejecting her biological sex and opting to become a hijra — a member of an ancient transgender community in India, popularly referred to as eunuchs.

Aher dances during an event observing World AIDS Day in New Delhi on Dec. 2, 2012. Of the recent legal ruling, recognizing transgender Indians as a third gender, she says: "We have put a foot inside a door, which is a door of hope, and we will open it — very, very soon."

Anna Zieminski/AFP/Getty Images

This week, India's Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling for hijras and other transgender Indians, by recognizing a third gender under the law that is neither male nor female. The sweeping decision redefines their rights and the state's obligation to them as one of India's most marginalized groups.

Aher has felt that marginalization from a young age.

With his mother working as a clerk in the state government, Aher was raised by a maid who indulged the fantasies of an only child, including a fascination with a mother's jingling anklets.

"I was mesmerized by that. When I used to be at home, I used to have grand performances, where I'm calling all the neighbors and dancing in front of them and putting up a show exactly replicating what my mother is doing on the stage," Aher remembers. "One fine day, she just found out, and she just got really mad about it. I was asked to sit in front of a god and make a pledge that I will never do that again."

'A Huge Feeling Of Incompleteness'
Things grew more complicated as Aher grew more effeminate and became the object of abuse — dragged into the school library, stripped and taunted by older male students. Aher's teacher was no source of comfort: She declared the tormentors were in the right.

"She categorically said to me, 'Your friends are doing this to you because you are behaving in an extremely feminine way and that's what is an issue,' " Aher says.

To resolve the deepening complexities of the teenager's sexual identity, a psychiatrist prescribed sitting "in a dark room" and taking two Tylenol.

Aher attends a national conference on HIV-AIDS in New Delhi on July 4, 2011. Unlike many other hijras, she holds a conventional job as a project manager with an HIV-AIDS group.

Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

"Which we tried for some time — and my mother took me to a lot of those saints and a lot of temples also to make sure that I sort of come back to what I should be," Aher says.

Aher was told to behave more "manly," sever contact with girls who were a feminizing influence and wear male clothing. And Aher obliged so as not to bring "shame" on her mother.

"I had to do that almost for 10 to 15 years. I used to watch myself, how I walk, how I talk, how I behave, how I dress up, just to hide my sexuality, just to fit into the heterosexual world," Aher says. "I finished my education ... and I started working as a software engineer. There was a huge feeling of incompleteness all the time — having something wrong with your body all the time, not being able to connect with your soul all the time."

Confused about what was happening, Aher attempted suicide three times — and survived each attempt.

"I could not die," Aher says with a smile. "And that was turning point in life, because I thought that since I did not die, let me try to live now."

The strains with Aher's mother became so serious that while they lived under the same roof, the two did not speak for nine years.

All the while, Aher's desire to change gender was growing.

"My urge to become a woman was getting stronger inside me," she says.

Joining The Hijras

A sense of isolation drove Aher into the arms of a guru, or mentor, within a community of like-minded souls known as hijras, who wear saris and make-up and are enshrined in Indian literary epics. Regarded as auspicious, they are invited to bestow blessings at births and dance at weddings.

"Transgender" is an umbrella term that is used to describe a wide range of identities, hijras being one. It is applied to persons whose gender identity does not conform to their biological sex. There is limited data on the estimated population of India's transgender community, but anecdotal evidence puts it between a half a million to two million individuals.

Today, hijras can also be aggressive, especially when not handed money as they wend their way through traffic, begging. Though visible in public, their world is often shrouded in secrecy.

"They like the mystique," says Aher, adding that initiation into the hijra community is full of rituals.

First, hijras make a pledge to hand over all earnings to the guru, who in exchange supports them inside what is effectively an alternative home as most hijras are runaways or evicted by their families. Then there are the protocols for the physical transformation: As the male form is cast off for the female, initiates cannot cut their hair or shave their face. Traditional "pluckers" from the hijra community pluck all the hair the faces of the initiates. They then start going out in public as females.

Joining this group that traces its roots back to antiquity is not something to be taken lightly.

"It's no joke," Aher says solemnly.

It can be psychologically and physically traumatic; there's body-altering hormone treatment, often followed by operations to reassign sexual organs in a process known as "feminization."

And the changes are costly. Aher says a breast augmentation operation alone can cost about $1,000 — a considerable amount in India. Castration surgeries cost a similar amount.

The physical toll is high as well.

"After the castration, you cannot work for almost 1 1/2 month. It was not an easy task, it was a journey of pain," Aher says now, with a laugh. "I just wanted to become a beautiful butterfly."

To help finance her transformation, Aher says she became a sex worker. Castration is a dangerous business.

"It happens in a dingy room, a 10 by 10 probably. Immediately after the castration, two hours, the hijra is asked to leave that place, because it is illegal," Aher says. "The operations are normally done by quacks, and a lot of hijras die because of that."

Hijras have long been discriminated against in jobs, housing, education and health care. They are routinely turned away from hospitals. Aher recalls being turned away by 17 hotels in a row while on a business trip in the Indian state of Kerala, which is thought to be more enlightened on gender attitudes than other states.

But Aher has triumphed in the workplace: she is a full-time staff member of the Indian HIV-AIDS Alliance responsible for a national campaign aimed at expanding AIDS awareness and prevention. The UNDP reports a high prevalence of HIV (17 to 41 percent) within the hijra community.

In its sweeping ruling, the Supreme Court this week directed the government to provide equal opportunity to the socially and economically deprived transgender population, including health care.

'A Door Of Hope'

The Court's ruling making a third gender for India's transgender population is a milestone for this conservative country that still regards homosexuality as a criminal offense.

The colonial-era law known as "Section 377" makes gay sex a crime in India and is used to also target the hijra community.

Opponents of the law argue that the penal code established by the British Raj in 1860 prohibiting "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" infringes on fundamentals rights of privacy and expression and has no place in modern India. The Supreme Court convenes Tuesday on whether to hear full arguments on the law.

Section 377 has been used to threaten, extort, and blackmail members of the hijra community, many of whom are forced into the sex trade to survive.

Aher says the fight is not over.

"What we have done is that we have put a foot inside a door, which is a door of hope, and we will open it — very, very soon," she says.

But as well-established as the hijras may be, they are still regarded by many Indians with discomfort and derision. Ridding society of stigmas and superstitions will be the true test of the hijras' hard-fought recognition.

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Abuse Of Transgender Indians Begins In Early Childhood

Reference link:http://www.indiaspend.com/special-reports/abuse-of-transgender-indians-begins-in-early-childhood-94265

Four of 10 transgender people face sexual abuse before completing 18 years, according to a survey by Swasti Health Resource Centre — a Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation — among 2,169 respondents across three states: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The abuse begins as early as age five, but most vulnerable are those aged 11 to 15, the data show.

Violence (physical, emotional and sexual) continues beyond childhood: 971 (44.7 per cent) respondents reported facing 2,811 incidents of violence — an average of three incidents per person –between April and October 2015.

Emotional violence topped the list (1,228), followed by physical violence (802) and sexual violence (781).

Many gender non-conforming children drop out of school due to harassment and discrimination.

As many as 616 respondents (28.4 per cent) without education were more vulnerable to violence than those with education, the data reveal.

Without education, life skills and jobs, many trans-women (men who express themselves as women) take to sex work. In most cases, clients are the top perpetrators of physical violence and second in sexual and emotional violence.

Trans-women are often used by men for sex, only to be abandoned later, Sharmila said. Marriages with men tend to end in separation because of familial and societal pressures.

As many as 751 respondents (34.6 per cent) were separated. While 719 respondents (33.2 per cent) reported being married, no more than 5.1 per cent, or 110, were living with husbands.

As many as 30 per cent transgender people live alone, the survey found. No more than seven per cent lived with families, largely because they were not accepted or lacked support.

The jamaat (community or a cohabitating system for transgender people) formed an important support system for many. About 35 per cent or 751 respondents live with gurus (mentor) or jamaats.

Besides the jamaat, community organisations were sources of support for transgender people: 1,923, or 88.7 per cent, respondents were registered members of community organisations. These organisations help them with prevention of HIV AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome), sexual health and with individual rights.

Concerns of sexual health and individual rights are not always mutually exclusive. Sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), a surgical procedure to change genital organs from one gender to other, as an important measure for self-realisation, is one such scenario.

As many as 1,564 respondents (72.1 per cent) have undergone SRS.

SRS is performed in select government facilities, free of cost, in Tamil Nadu, according to a 2010 report, Hijras/Transgender Women in India, released by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-India.

Since private facilities are unaffordable, the absence of affordable public-funded facilities forces many individuals to go to unqualified doctors, resulting, often, in post-operative complications, particularly urological.

Tamil Nadu has proven itself as the most transgender-friendly state in India. Besides providing free SRS, it also has a Tamil Nadu Aravanigal (Transgender) Welfare Board (TGWB), formed in April 2008, as the nodal body to address the social-protection needs of transgender people.

Within a year of TGWB’s existence, 3,887 transgender people were enumerated and 2,411 aravani (transgender) identity cards were distributed, according to this 2012 policy brief for the UNDP by Venkatesan Chakrapani, associated with the Centre for Sexuality and Health Research and Policy, an advocacy.

Until 2010, 335 free land pattas (title deeds), 1,211 ration/food cards and 320 self-employment grants of Rs 20,000 each were distributed.

A path-breaking achievement in the struggle for transgender rights was a 2014 Supreme Court judgment that recognised them as the third gender. The judgment also attributed to them socially and economically backward status, thus entitling them to reservations under the other backward classes (OBC) quota.

However, in July 2016, the court reprimanded the Centre for failing to implement its order two years after it was passed, especially with reference to reservations in jobs and education.

Activists fighting for transgender rights have criticised the 2016 draft bill for Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) as undermining the court’s 2014 judgment.

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Public acknowledgement/ News of the LGBT community :

Reference: https://www.ndtv.com/topic/transgenders-in-india

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/07/19/the-bitter-reality-of-being-a-transgender-employee-in-india_a_23035751/

Odisha Becomes First State To Give Welfare Benefits To Transgenders

Odisha is the first region in the country to give transgender people social welfare benefits - such as a pension, housing and food grains - usually allocated for only the most impoverished, an official said Today.

Transgender model from Kerala to be superstar Mammootty's heroine

21-year-old Anjali Ameer is a transgender model who has successfully transformed into a woman after sex reassignment surgery, and is now the first transgender model from to star in a mainstream Malayalam movie.

The Coimbatore based model will be Mammootty’s heroine in a movie called Pernabu. Anjali is excited about things to come and described the superstar as very helpful.

Anjali had always felt that she was born in a body that didn’t feel like hers and when she travelled to Bengaluru for her graduation as a 19-year-old, she went on to transform into a woman through surgery.

Anjali has already done photo shoots for magazines as her modelling career paved way for her foray into films.

23 Transgender Persons Clinch Ticketing, Customer Relations, Housekeeping Jobs At Kochi Metro

Kochi Metro Rail Ltd is extending employment opportunities to transgender community in housekeeping, crowd management and customer relations. The 23 transgender persons will take charge of the ticket counters and customer care at the stations.

UPDATED NEWS:

In May this year, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd, an enterprise owned by the government of Kerala, appointed 23 transgender people in different positions in its workforce, a month before it began its operations. "We would like to give members of the transgender community their rightful share in different jobs at stations," Elias George, managing director of Kochi Metro, told The Hindu. "There will be no discrimination between them and women workers." The company planned to scale up the number of transgender employees to 60 in the next few months.

In the first week of their job, 8 of the 23 transgender people, all trans women, quit. Employed in a variety of roles, from ticketing to housekeeping staff, which paid between ₹9,000-₹15,000 a month, most of them found it impossible to make ends meet, especially since landlords in the city charged them ₹400-₹600 a day for the most basic accommodation. That is, if they agreed to rent a place to them at all.

Some of the trans women had given up begging on the streets or sex work (both are illegal in India) to take up a government job. Others had found employment after being sacked from an earlier well-paid private-sector job because of their gender. If they had hoped for a steady income and better stability, they realised their predicament within hours of joining the Kochi Metro. At the end of their first day at a 'regular job', one of them was forced to pick up a customer for sex and another went back on the streets to beg to supplement their incomes.

Love Is In The Air: India Gets Its First LGBT Radio Show

Mumbai: Outspoken gay rights activist Harish Iyer is used to fighting for equal rights but over the last month he has turned into a messenger of love.

He is the host of “Gaydio“, the first radio show dedicated to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in the country, where homosexuality is still a taboo and gay sex can be punished with up to 10 years in jail.

The Indian penal code bans “sex against the order of nature”, which is widely interpreted as homosexual sex, and transgender people face widespread discrimination even though the Supreme Court has enshrined a person’s right to identify as transgender.The weekly show on commercial radio channel Ishq, which means love in Urdu, was launched in mid-July and is aired every Sunday in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

Trans Queen India 2017: A pageant where transgenders can aspire to get crowned

Transgenders, from India, will showcase their skills at a pageant organised by a Delhi-based homemaker. The winner will represent the country at Miss International Trans Queen in Thailand.

Parliamentary Panel Favours Reservations For Transgenders

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel examining the Transgender Bill has suggested that the government should consider reservations for the transgender community as it is among the most marginalised in the country. This was conveyed to top government officials by members of the standing committee on social justice and empowerment, said an parliamentarian.Transgenders are the most marginalised in the country, and a mechanism should be developed for education and employment of the community so that they can lead a respectful life, another MP said.

The committee is examining the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, which seeks to define the term "transgender" and prohibits discrimination against the community.

The Bill confers the right upon transgender people to be recognised as such and also grants them the right to "self-perceived" gender identity.It provides for a grievance redress mechanism in each establishment to ensure the rights of transgenders are protected and they are insulated from any sort of harassment or discrimination.

It was introduced in the Lok Sabha in July last year, but was later referred to the standing committee.

According to the 2011 Census, India has six lakh people belonging to the transgender community.The community is among the most backward in the country because they do not fit into the categories of the two recognised genders of men and women.They face issues ranging from social exclusion and discrimination to lack of educational and medical facilities, and unemployment.

Transgender Becomes College Principal, a First in India

KOLKATA: There are firsts and there are firsts. But this one is really special. India now has its first third gender principal, at a government college in Bengal. Till 2003, Dr Manabi Bandopadhyay was Somnath. But all that is behind her. She hopes she has done the transgender community proud.

As she takes charge, there is no recrimination, no self-pity about how hard life has been - just excitement about her new job as principal, Krishnanagar Women's College, a post she competed for and won fair and square.

"I want to forget my past 'parichay'," says Dr Manabi Bandopadhyay who has a PhD in Bengali literature and is currently head of the Bengali department of a government college at Jhargram. "I am Manabi and I want to create many new Manabis, " she adds.

Manabi, who is 50, changed her sex and name in 2003. But till 2012 she was Somnath on college records, which caused her considerable annoyance. The big boost came when the Supreme Court recognised the third gender last April in a landmark judgement. Her message to her community: "Education. If we learn, all problems will be solved. I want all transgenders to get education."

She also has a message for the rest of the world that still looks askance at transgenders. "Those who look down at us, they are not good people. We don't need them. We are not ashamed by what they think. We are pure."

Dr Bandopadhyay, who has an adopted son and a 92 year old father, took over as principal on 9th June 2015.

UPDATED NEWS:

INDIAS FIRST TRANSGENDER COLLEGE PRINCIPAL RESIGNS AFTER 'NON COOPERATION' FROM STAFF

KRISHNAGAR, WEST BENGAL: India's first transgender college principal Dr Manabi Bandopadhyay has submitted her resignation after about one-and-a-half years in office, expressing frustration at "non-cooperation" of a section of teachers and students of her institution.

Dr Bandopadhyay alleged that she started facing non-cooperation from a section of teachers soon after she took over as the principal of the well-known women's college on June 9, 2015. On the other hand, the teachers also levelled the same allegation against the principal, resulting in a stand-off.

Dr Bandopadhyay said, "All of my colleagues went against me. Some of the students went against me. I tried to bring back discipline and an atmosphere of education in the college. Most probably, that is why they went against me. I always got co-operation from the local administration, but never got it from my colleagues and students."

She said that she had been under tremendous mental pressure and could not take it anymore, forcing her to resign.
"I feel tired due to the agitation and gherao by the students and teachers. I faced a lot of legal notices from their end. I had come to this college with new hopes and dreams but I was defeated...," she said. Dr Bandopadhyay {51} whose earlier name was Somnath, underwent a series of operations in 2003-20014 and became a woman. In 199, she published the country's first transgender magazine, Ob-Manab {sub human}.

BLACK COFFEE AND THOUGHTS

Monday, September 25, 2017

The Ardhanaaris