Over the weekend one attended a ‘Hijra Habba’ at Patna, organized by an organization working on the HIV/AIDS platform providing technical assistance to for the MTH interventions of Bihar state AIDS Control Society. Commendable job, talking about mainstreaming, and getting a government minister to pitch in, bolstered by a reps from few government and non-government agencies who made a few sympathetic noises.

Remember, the Nitish Kumar government has already announced the inclusion of TGs in the ‘backward caste quota. Many people aren’t too sure about that one. A BJP led government may just reverse that decision, because after all, TGs are a ‘micro-minority’ and a politically significant number of Biharis aren’t going to lose any sleep if they do.

The problem one has with the ‘Hijra habba’ in a Bihar is the dominance of one, vocal, boisterous community of TGs running away with the discourse. Not every TG is a Hijra. I would go do far as to say that there are a great many TGs (as defined by the NALSA judgement) who are in fact not Hijras. There are transmen and transwomen. Naturally, there wasn’t a single transman at the event, but that’s not the fault of the organisers.

The main objective of the consultation was to give a nudge to the formation of the Bihar Transgender Board. What civil society fears, and finds it difficult to articulate is this: will the board be filled with illiterate, bawdy, belligerently clapping Hijras?

The ‘welcome’ song of the Hijra Habba had the invited civil society dignitaries squirming. A buxom, TG with ‘little’ dress sense gyrated, thrust , and thumped around the makeshift stage with wild abandon, in what appeared to be an atrocious parody of an Bollywood item number. Wouldn’t an elegantly dressed kathak queen be a far better idea? Couldn’t the organisers have thought of the programme quality?

The core reason is this, PNRO does not have an LGBT leadership. The Patna personnel probably believe that ‘bawdy dancing’ is all that Hijras do. I have seen beautiful and elegant dancing at so many MSM, kothi gatherings across the country, including Lucknow. ‘Bold and bawdy’ pelvic thrusts in spaghetti straps and skimpy skirts  outfits may emphasise your right to what you want to wear. They may even have some ‘daddies’ in the audience salivating. But it ain’t  gonna  get you an iota of mainstream middle class approval.

Pehchan’s North Region Office has a mandate to work with local groups who fall under the ‘targeted intervention’ profile: MSM, Transgender, and Hijra. Only the Hijra live together as identifiable communities within geographical locations. Spring a rapport with the guru ma, and you can more or less work with the community. Non-Hijra TGs, those with some education and so on, are either still in the closet, or struggling to survive. Thirdly, this term MSM [males having sex with males] will probably overlap several identities.

Now, the district administration needs to know how many TGs are there, at least in Patna district, for a start. They have asked the AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences to conduct a socio-economic survey. But how does the government determine who is transgender? They have tried to cobble together a committee with a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and a TG (non-Hijra) activist who identifies as Reshma/ Ramesh.

Let’s see how things develop. What is needed though, is for all of us who want social equity to do some serious rethinking on our TG mainstreaming strategy.

  Dateline Bihar, Frank Krishner