Gender identity laws: 'E’ for eunuchs in Indian passport

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E' for eunuchs in Indian passport

Sunday, 13 March , 2005, 13:11

New Delhi: Their arduous journey from guarding Mughal harems to

earning a living by singing and dancing, prostitution and begging

may not yet have ended, but eunuchs intending to travel abroad now

need not pass off as male or female.

They will now be issued passports that specify their true gender

identity.

Eunuchs applying for passports have just to fill 'E' in the gender

box on the forms.

At the back of the passport forms, guidelines identify eunuchs as a

separate gender although there is no third box technically for

applicants belonging to the long-ostracised communities.

Eunuchs have to put an 'E' in upper case in any of the tiny 'M'

and 'F' squares meant for male and female applicants.

''Earlier, they (eunuchs) would pass off with passports identifying

them mostly as men. They would travel to Mecca and other Arab

destinations mostly,'' All India Hijra Kalyan Sabha president

Khairati Lal Bhola said.

Fears that their passport applications would be rejected because of

confusion over their sex have often prompted eunuchs to give false

gender identity in their forms.

Bhola said most of the eunuchs in the country were castrated

men. ''They are generally not transvestites or hermaphrodites.''

Eunuchs welcomed the news of having passports that recognise their

gender identity.

''It's good. We are also humans and this thing should have come long

ago,'' said Fatima, who has spent years in a Delhi ghetto.

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