Hijra (Third Gender): Meaning, Identity, Culture, and Respectful Usage

Some hijra people identify as women. Others identify as a third gender, transgender, nonbinary, or simply hijra. There is no single body type, appearance, sexual orientation, or life experience shared by every hijra person.

Simple examples include:

• A hijra person may use feminine clothing and language.
• Another hijra person may describe their gender as neither male nor female.
• Being hijra does not automatically mean being intersex.
• A hijra person may live with a chosen community or with their birth family.
• Respecting a hijra person includes using their chosen name and pronouns.

The word can be respectful when used accurately as an identity term. However, it may become insulting when shouted at someone, used mockingly, or applied without consent.

• a hijra person;
• a member of the hijra community;
• several hijras;
• the rights of hijra people.

It may also function as an adjective:

• hijra identity;
• hijra culture;
• hijra community;
• hijra rights;
• hijra traditions.

In respectful English, hijra person or hijra people often sounds more person-centered than using hijras as a broad label.

Common Usage Patterns

The word frequently appears in expressions such as:

• identify as hijra;
• hijra community;
• hijra culture;
• hijra rights;
• hijra identity;
• hijra people;
• hijra leader;
• discrimination against hijra people.

The term should not automatically be translated as man dressed as a woman. That wording ignores gender identity, culture, and the diversity of hijra experiences.

A hijra person may understand their gender as:

• female;
• third gender;
• transgender;
• nonbinary;
• neither man nor woman;
• a distinct hijra identity.

Some people enter hijra communities after experiencing rejection from their birth families. Others remain connected to their relatives or join hijra networks while maintaining independent homes and careers.

No one should assume a hijra person’s identity based only on clothing, voice, body, legal documents, or participation in community traditions.

Many hijra people may be described as transgender, and some identify strongly with both terms. However, hijra has a specific South Asian cultural history that the general word transgender does not fully express.

Compare:

• Transgender is a broad international identity category.
• Hijra is a culturally specific South Asian identity and community.
• A transgender woman in Bangladesh is not automatically hijra.
• A hijra person may or may not call themselves a transgender woman.
• Personal identity terms should not be assigned without permission.

Using transgender as a complete replacement for hijra may erase important community and cultural differences.

Some hijra people are intersex, but many are not. Likewise, most intersex people do not identify as hijra.

Hijra is mainly a gender and cultural identity. Intersex concerns physical sex characteristics. The two concepts should not be treated as interchangeable.

A guru is a senior community member who may provide guidance, protection, housing, cultural teaching, or social connections. A chela is a junior member or disciple within the community.

These relationships can function as chosen family, especially for people rejected by relatives. Community life may provide:

• emotional support;
• shared housing;
• cultural knowledge;
• financial cooperation;
• protection from discrimination;
• a sense of identity and belonging.

Experiences vary. Not every hijra person lives in a traditional household or participates in a guru–chela structure.

Traditional activities may include:

• giving blessings at births;
• appearing at weddings;
• singing or dancing at celebrations;
• offering prayers or ceremonial performances;
• receiving money or gifts in return.

These traditions are sometimes called badhai practices.

Not every hijra person performs these roles. Hijra people may work in journalism, education, business, government, healthcare, activism, entertainment, or other professions.

Begging and sex work are sometimes associated with hijra communities, but these activities often reflect exclusion from education, housing, and formal employment rather than an inherent feature of hijra identity.

However, legal recognition does not automatically eliminate discrimination. A United Nations Development Programme report on hijra lives in Bangladesh describes family rejection, violence, social stigma, educational exclusion, and barriers to ordinary employment.

The Bangladesh Ministry of Social Welfare also operates a program intended to support hijra people through educational assistance, allowances, vocational training, and financial support.

Official use of the phrase third gender can be helpful for recognition, but some people prefer hijra, transgender woman, or another personal identity term.

A hijra person may:

• have typical male reproductive anatomy;
• be intersex;
• use hormones;
• undergo gender-affirming surgery;
• participate in a traditional bodily procedure;
• make no medical changes.

Medical treatment is not required for hijra identity.

Questions about a person’s genitals, surgery, fertility, or hormone use are private unless the person chooses to discuss them. Identity should not be judged through physical examination or demanded proof.

A hijra person may be attracted to:

• men;
• women;
• hijra or nonbinary people;
• people of several genders;
• no one;
• different people at different times.

Hijra people may form romantic partnerships, marriages, casual relationships, chosen families, or celibate lives. Their identity does not reveal what sexual activities they practice or whether they want a relationship.

Gender identity concerns who someone is. Sexual orientation concerns whom they may be attracted to.

• using the person’s chosen name;
• asking which pronouns they use;
• using hijra only when it is their identity;
• avoiding jokes about voice, clothing, bodies, or mannerisms;
• not assuming that every gender-diverse South Asian person is hijra;
• not using hijra as an insult;
• respecting privacy about legal documents and medical history.

Pronouns vary. Some hijra people use she/her, while others use they/them, he/him, or pronouns from their own language.

Hijra and transgender mean exactly the same thing.
The identities may overlap, but hijra is a distinct South Asian cultural and community identity.

All hijra people have undergone surgery.
Bodies and medical choices vary, and surgery is not required.

Hijra identity determines sexual orientation.
A hijra person may have any sexual or romantic orientation.

All hijra people beg or perform at ceremonies.
Hijra people have varied occupations, abilities, education, and life experiences.

The word hijra is always offensive.
It can be a respected identity term, but it becomes offensive when used mockingly or imposed on someone.

1. Hijra is a culturally specific gender identity found mainly in South Asia.
2. The hijra activist spoke about equal access to education and employment.
3. Can a hijra person also identify as transgender?
4. A hijra person is not automatically intersex.
5. The organization hired several hijra employees.
6. Her hijra identity does not reveal her sexual orientation.
7. Some hijra people live within traditional chosen-family communities.
8. The law formally recognized hijra people as a separate gender category.
9. Respecting a hijra person includes using their chosen name and pronouns.
10. The word hijra should never be used as a mocking insult.

Hijra people may have diverse bodies, partners, sexual interests, reproductive histories, and relationship goals. Their identity does not prove any particular anatomy, sexual behavior, fertility status, or medical transition.

Respectful sexuality education recognizes hijra identity as distinct, separates gender from sexual orientation and intersex traits, avoids invasive assumptions, and supports equal access to consent-based relationships, healthcare, safety, dignity, and social participation.