Gender based exclusion of Bangladeshi transgender “Hijra” community from job sector
Abstract
In Bangladesh, the Hijra is a large community of third gender people, mostly consisting of male-to-female transgender persons as well as eunuchs or men who had their genitals removed. These Hijras are often a time excluded from various job opportunities. This has led to poor living standards among the Hijras. This research study was initiated to investigate the current employment situation of the Hijras, exploring the key obstacles Hijra community face while going thorough recruitment procedures or while stay on a job, investigating the discrepancy between the current Hijras means of employments vis-à-vis what Hijras would like to take as a profession if given a level playing field devoid of any gender-based exclusion or social discrimination, and lastly, assessing if Hijras' current means of income is non-traditional and non-conforming to society and how this means of employment undermine their rights as a human being. To achieve this, the study relied on social exclusion-related theories (Islam and Morgan, 2012), system theory (Schirmer and Michailakis, 2015), and advocacy theory (Payne, 2005) and had a total of 13 participants comprising of 5 individuals from the NGOs, 6 unemployed Hijras, and 2 ordinary social workers drawn from the Hijra community. The study found that most Hijra members fail to get jobs in the Bangladeshi job sectors due to their peculiar lifestyle and lack of education. This is because the Hijras in Bangladesh have no religious, constitutional, social, or legal rights, which ensure equal opportunities in social development. The study also found that lack of legal recognition through a legal policy is one of the fundamental factors that has hindered Hijras' rights in the education and therefore job sector. Most Hijras cannot acquire quality education because of people's negligence, policies, and discrimination institutions. The physical appearance of Hijra members and their behaviors subjected them to different facets of exclusion in the learning institution.