Regarding the history of Hijras, the Hijra community stretches back to antiquity where they were more respected and important than they are been now. Because of being recognized as “third gender” in the world, it becomes difficult for them to live in country like India and also other Asian countries. Here we brought you some facts about Hijras, which makes a part of the country India.
1.In general, Hijras are born with typically male functioning and only a few among them have been born with male intersex variations.
2. The Urdu and Hindi word Hijras may alternately be known as as hijira, hijda, hijada, hijara, hijrah.
3. The term Hijra along with other Romanized names have been generally considered critical in Urdu and so the word Khwaja Saraa is used in association to them.
4. The goddess Renuka and Buhuchara Mata is believed to have the power to change one’s sex, and hence they are great devotees to them.
5. Male devotees in female clothing are popularly known as Jogappa and they perform similar roles to Hijras, such as dancing and giving Bhadaai in various ceremonies and weddings.
6. Majority of Hijras live in the margins of society, where there source of income includes from perform at various function and giving Badhaai, begging and their major source of income is through working as sex workers.
7. On 15 April 2014, in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India said that transgender people in the country should be treated as a third category of gender or the third gender and are recognized as socially and economically backward class who are entitled to access and representation in education and jobs.
8. Secret language of Hijras is known as the Hijra Farsi which mostly the combination of Urdu words and some unheard, unknown vocabulary of a different language.
9. On an average, large cities like Bombay or Delhi have 5,000 Hijras who are basically living in twenty or thirty and the national estimate of total number of Hijras in the country may be as high as 50,000 – 1,00,000.
10. Many Hijras also work as sex workers and in such cases the activity of prostitution is carried out within a Hijras household, which is under the supervision of a house manager or the madam, (who is also a Hijra sometime) who will collect part or all of the prostitute’s earnings in return for shelter, food, a small allowance, and protection from the police and rowdy customers.
11. The major principle of social organization among the Hijras is the relation between gurus who are the teachers and their chelas or the disciples. The Guru is basically mother or father to their Chelas and they guide them through all the aspects and hardships of the life.
12. Hijras carry out the Emasculation operation in which all or part of the male genitals is removed and this operation is viewed as a rebirth of the Hijra. It is said that the new hijra created by the Nirvan emasculation due to which a hijra completes the transformation from being an impotent male to potent hijra successfully.
13. Hijras believe that any impotent man who resists a call from the goddess to emasculate himself will be born impotent for seven future births.
14. On a death of the Hijra, the guru or the senior most member of the Hijra community is supposed to make all the preparation of the funeral.
15. Hijras also worship Lord Shiva where one of the most popular forms of Shiva is Ardhanarisvara, or half-man/half-woman, which represents Shiva united with his Shakti (the women)
So, did you know about these facts?