DHAKA: Boby, a hermaphrodite popularly known as hijra, was forcibly got out from her home at the age of 14 only. Her only fault is to become a hijra.
After getting out from family, she fell in a big trouble. She did not have any shelter and at one stage she got shelter in the hermaphrodite community.
Some 15 years have passed, Boby haven’t got her rights yet. On the contrary, society and state have been depriving her from in every aspect of basic rights.
Not only Boby, but also many others like her are being ousted from family for being hijra.
Most of the hijras are being deprived of their fundamental rights. They are treated like neither man nor woman but society knows their presence.
The government does not allow them to cast their vote. They are not with their own original identity.
Expressing same experience, Pinky hijra told: “We are living without identity. Even we didn’t get National Identity card and the government is not counting them during census also.
Pinky added: “But we are also human beings. We need food, shelter, cloth, education and job to survive in the world like other men and women. We are being denied of our every right as social taboos and discrimination made them untouchable, fearsome and funny.”
“Nobody provides any job to hijras though some of us have secondary and higher secondary level education,” said Sagorika. She also left family because of her sexual preference that was not acceptable to her parents.
“We are not allowed in public places, buses and even hospitals in emergencies. Wherever we go, people treat us very badly, tease and laugh at us,” she said.
This type of social attitude adversely affects their minds. “We do suffer from inferiority complex all the time,” she added.
ASM Rahmat Ullah, Program Manager of Bondhu Social Welfare, an NGO said, “We have to except social diversity. Otherwise, discrimination towards transgender will not be removed from society or state. To eliminate these types of discrimination, we have to work together.”
Shale Ahmed, Executive Director of the NGO, said, “We have to change our mindset. To eradicate hermaphrodite problem, we have to talk more and more. Besides, we have to take comprehensive program for this community.”
Eminent human rights activists Sultana Kamal told banglanews that “we couldn’t accept anything if it goes against us”
She added: “We have to accept others view. Communalism and racism has been intruded in human. The mindset towards transgender is also the same problem. We have to fight against it as influential people want to keep it stay.”
Chairman of National Human Rights Commission Dr Mizanur Rahman said, “The human rights are being violated through discrimination. Democracy means to work together but it has been turned into an arm to erase somebody.”
source: http://www.banglanews24.com/English/detailsnews.php?nssl=2a78c2152f92e8bb092f2d00053bf078&nttl=3006201372704
