Protecting the Transgender People in Bangladesh

As a human being, every person is entitled to a sense of ‘belonging’ and to be accepted into the society as one of its own. Unfortunately, almost all over the world, transgender people (often recognized as the third gender) are denied of this basic right. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”. All the signatories to the declaration are therefore obliged to ensure these rights for everyone, irrespective of their gender. But in most countries transgender people are treated as social pariahs.

The transgender people mostly consists of those who cannot be categorized as men or women. They are known by different names in different regions, for example: Hermaphrodites in western countries, Kathoeys in Thailand, Fa’afafine in samoan diaspora etc. They are very commonly known as hijras in the South Asian countries including Bangladesh.

The total number of hijras in Bangladesh is not more than ten thousand making them especially vulnerable to the prevailing social prejudices and intolerance. They are looked down upon and eschewed from the mainstream and in most cases are compelled to live a disgraceful life. The situation is not very dissimilar in other South Asian countries.

This wasn’t always the case here in South Asia. In ancient times, hermaphrodites were treated as equals in the sub-continent. Epics like Mahabharata or Ramayana contain stories where hermaphrodites are regarded as heroic characters. Even Sanskrit grammar, Mahābhāṣya (c. 200 BC), has proof that the idea of gender derived from three natural genders. Western civilization introduced the concept of binary gender to ours and the situation got steadily worse for the hijras after that.

There is no use dwelling in the past, what we should rather be doing is figuring out how to restore the rights and privileges of this sexual minority and see to it that they get to live a normal life just like anyone else. At present, many NGOs are working on the issue, but what is saddening is that these organizations are often using the community to collect funds. Hardly there has been any change in the quality of the lives of these vulnerable people.

Fortunately, the government has come forward to address the problem. One of the praiseworthy steps taken by the Government in this regard is that it has recognized the transgender people as ‘third gender’ and made the arrangement of their education and other basic rights a priority. Regrettably, due to the slow pace of implementation, these initiatives are yielding too little to be noticed.

The fact that transgender people are standing at such a low point in the society has a lot to do with us—the common people. We have a severe lack of awareness and sensitivity towards their basic rights. Unless and until we start treating this vulnerable mass as our own, no government initiative, no legislation, no convention can fortify their rights.

Citations:

Tanzina Islam, “Protecting the Transgender People in Bangladesh”  (DHLR Blog, 31 August 2014) http://www.dhakalawreview.org/blog/2014/08/protecting-the-transgender-people-in-bangladesh-182

Tanzina Islam Member since August 28, 2014

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Tanzina Islam is a passionate editor and a language enthusiast. She has worked at the Human Rights Law Clinic under South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (SAILS) carrying out a research on the role of medical waste management system in protecting human rights. Ms. Islam completed her first law degree from Dhaka University and is pursuing an LLM at the same university.

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