Bangladesh transgender community: On the road to equality and progress

In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, transgender people are commonly known as hijra, a derogatory term. Considered a harbinger of bad omen they are despised in families as well as in society. Life has not been fair to them forcing them to become street beggars. The social rejection has led them to live in ghettos where many of them go to bed without a proper meal. This miserable living condition of the country’s third-sex population has started changing thanks to some humanitarian steps undertaken by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.

Consider the gift a group of 15 transgender people received ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, the largest religious festival the Muslims in Bangladesh celebrated in the last week of April. The transgender inhabitants at the remote northern village were overjoyed after receiving houses given free under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Ashrayan project. The project has been launched to provide government-built houses to homeless and landless people. For the first time, transgender people were included in the widely admired scheme.

“We used to live in the same flat in an extremely cramped condition with little privacy,” said Sumi Khan, a member of the 15-strong group. Their struggle to rent a house became almost impossible due to reservations entertained by rural folk about transgenders, as in most predominantly Muslim countries. This Eid, she said, heralded a new dawn in their lives, thanks to the first-of-its-kind housing scheme rolled out by the Prime Minister that seeks to ensure no one in her country remains homeless and landless.

“Now we can live a decent life owing to the residential scheme organised by the prime minister”, said an elated Sumi, adding “This priceless gift will change the course of our lives and ensure economic empowerment.” According to the population census published in July, Bangladesh has a little more than 12,000 transgender people among the national population of 170 million.

As society is still heavily prejudiced against the transgender community, most children born with this gender identity are driven out of their families and left with the only option of living in their own community, surviving mostly on the alms given by the people, according to rights activists. But with the inclusion of Sumi and her community under this comprehensive housing scheme, these decades-old dogmas are taking a hit.

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According to media reports, as of March this year, at least 140 transgender community people have been brought under the housing scheme across the country and they have now reportedly found new means of livelihood. Before this scheme, finding a permanent shelter was like chasing a distant dream for almost all of the beneficiaries, but now a glimmer of hope has dawned in their lives.

Official documents illustrating activities of the project shows a record number of 3.5 million lives that broke the cycle of poverty, thanks to allocation of houses among 7,00,000 families (or 3.5 million people) since the beginning of the project in 1997. Of the said number, over 5,00,000 families were endowed with a new home over the last three years, in sync with the announcement of the premier on the eve of the celebration of the birth centenary celebration of the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. "No one will remain homeless," announced the premier marking the anniversary.

And the cluster of beneficiaries evolved into an inclusive model given all fragmented segments including families affected by global warming in coastal belts, ethnic minorities, ultra-poor, beggars, elderly people, widows, women abandoned by their husbands, insolvent freedom fighters, climate victims, transgender, Dalit, ethnic groups, persons with disabilities found shelter, let alone new means of living also.  

Another remarkable aspect of this unique scheme has been the joint ownership of houses for the male and female beneficiaries. Domestic violence, coupled with discriminatory inheritance law and draconian religious dogmas, entrenched deeply within the societal fabric, held back the economic empowerment of half of the population — women — for decades.

But finally the gulf of odds are withering, with the rolling out of the initiative, led by the Premier herself, entitling women with land rights. The visionary move has yielded real and measurable gains, already a manifestation of turning Sheikh Hasina's electoral pledge of ensuring equal rights for women.

"I have a specific plan and I will reveal it in time," announced the premier in 2009 on her plan about empowering women with entitlement rights to property.  Now a decade down the line, she has lived up to the promises with her pledge. Among all 7,00,000 families who found a shelter for a lifetime, the provision of joint ownership — husband and wife — have already made a remarkable impact on the lives of women and their children under the initiative.

As joint ownership ends the dominance of husbands to call the shots in day-to-day affairs, this new entitlement heralds a new dawn on the lives of female beneficiaries as they have found freedom to get involved in income-generating activities too. Despite the fact that the female labour force participation in rural areas has increased significantly in Bangladesh thanks to women's growing involvement in the agriculture sector and urban-rural migration brought on by the global coronavirus pandemic, a World Bank report, years back found among rural households that own agricultural land, only 13% of women have sole or joint ownership of agricultural land, compared to 70% of men.

Now gone are the days when a woman often requires the use of land rights through her relationship to a man – usually a husband or a father – those rights are subject to the continuation of that relationship. “It’s time to say goodbye to these threats from husbands that change in relationship status can jeopardise women’s rights over property and other assets,, thank you Premier, your vision gave a new meaning to our life and for the posterity ” added one beneficiary.

Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.

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