The Cultural, Psychiatric, and Sexuality Aspects of Hijras in India

ABSTRACT

The Indian hijra community encompasses persons with a variety of gender identities and sexual orientations, forming a culturally unique gender group. Although these communities have existed for ages within Indian society, hijras have been stigmatized and marginalized to a large extent. Such stigmatization may compromise the mental health of hijras possibly giving rise to various mental health issues. The sociocultural aspects of hijras have frequently been the subjects of research by anthropologists and sociologists, but there is a dearth of data regarding mental health problems in them. This study aims to understand the cultural, psychiatric, and sexuality aspects of hijras in the city of Mumbai, focusing on the prevalence of gender identity disorder and psychiatric disorders (if any) in them, their self-esteem, and their sexual practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Culture
• gender dysphoria
• Gender Identity Disorder
• gharana
• guru–chela relationship
• hijra
• India
• Nirvan
• psychiatric disorder
• self-esteem
• transgender
• transsexual

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Prof. Ray Blanchard for allowing the use of the Gender Identity and Erotic Preference Test Package and also for giving valuable inputs during the initial stages of the study design. The authors also thank Mr. Harish Kambli and Ms. Urmi Jadhav from Humsafar Trust, who helped with the recruitment of cases for the study.

Notes

The term Gender Identity Disorder is used here to reflect the term as it was used as in the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10, the diagnostic systems that were used in the study. The authors do not recommend using the term today given the advances in our understanding of transgender issues.

Hijra individuals accessed this clinic for STI evaluation and treatment and for procuring free condoms since it was inside a public hospital. They were then referred from this STI clinic to the psychiatry department for inclusion in the study.

A respondent may have more than one source of income. But only their primary source of income is reported.