HIJRAS GET OFF THE STREETS AND GET BEHIND THE WHEEL AS CABBIES

INDIA's first radio taxi service for the LGBTIQ community has been launched in spite of anti-gay laws and homophobic prejudice.

Wings Travel, along with Humsafar Trust, a Mumbai-based NGO that works to promote the rights of India's gay community, launched the pilot phase of the Wings Rainbow initiative by enrolling Chauhan and four others.

They hope to expand to at least 1,500 taxis in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) by the end of this year.

The service, to be called Wings Rainbow, may then be expanded nationwide.

"The LGBT community, especially hijras or transgenders, have very few economic opportunities because of the huge stigma that they still face," said Pallav Patankar, director of programmes at Humsafar Trust in Mumbai.

"We hope that this will set the ball rolling and that it will open up other such opportunities for them."

India’s Supreme Court recognized transgender as a legal third gender in April 2014 and, in a landmark judgement lauded by human rights groups, called on the government to ensure their equal treatment.

Despite this, sexual minorities ... especially hijra transgender people who are more visible ... have been driven to the fringes of society into begging and sex work, and face discrimination in jobs and basic services such as health and education.

"When you see a transgender or a gay person driving a cab in Mumbai, the other transgenders who are begging on the streets will definitely want to be a part of this change," said Ganesh Somwanshi, project director for Wings Rainbow.

Cab driver Sanjeevani Chauhan (seen here smiling in red sari and jaunty cap) used to be a street sex worker.

"There are so many of us who are in the sex trade or begging on the streets," Chauhan, who has been working as a counselor for Humsafar for nearly three years, told Al Jazeera.

"Working as a cab driver will not only give us a job and security but also a different kind of respect and acceptance within the society," Sanjeevani said.

According to government figures, there are 2.5 million gays in India.

In 2013 the Supreme Court of India shocked the world by re-criminalising homosexuality after previously throwing out a colonial era law that banned homosexuality in 2009.

MEET MADHU KINNAR THE HIJRA, INDIA'S FIRST TRANS-GENDER MAYOR

FOR the first time a transgender hijra candidate has won a mayoral election in India.

Madhu Kinnar, an independent candidate, won the election in the Chhattisgarh's Raigarh Municipal Corporation by 4,357 votes on January 4.

She beat the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mahaveer Guruji, and was named the mayor of Raigarh.

The 35-year-old Kinnar previously worked as a singer and dancer on trains between Howrah and Mumbai, and stopped only when she was asked to be a candidate for mayor.

"It was the public support that encouraged me to enter the poll fray for the first time and because of their support only, I emerged as the winner," she said.

"People have shown faith in me. I consider this win as love and blessings of people for me. I'll put in my best efforts to accomplish their dreams."

Kinnar's win is a first for India, and stands as an historic victory. In India, transgender people, known culturally as Hijras, often consider themselves to be a third gender which is neither male nor female.

India’s Supreme Court issued a landmark verdict last April, creating a new category that allows transgender people to identify themselves as such on official documents, and recognising them for the first time.

On 11 December 2013 India’s Supreme Court upheld a colonial-era law which criminalises same-sex sexual activity. It overturned a 2009 New Delhi High Court decision that ruled the law unconstitutional.

The ruling caused outrage among LGBT activists and many of the county’s politicians. Despite several attempts to have the ruling thrown out, it remains.

TRANSGENDER HIJRA MOVIE

DOES BOFFO BOX-OFFICE IN BANGLADESH

ANTINOUS  is the God not only of gays but also of transgender people, so we are always gratified to pass along good news about hijras.

A film about a love affair between a hijra and a Hindu youth has become a surprise hit in Bangladesh, with distributors saying that it will now be given a general release, according to a report by AFP news agency.

COMMON GENDER, the first movie in conservative Bangladesh dealing with hijras, opened in just six cinemas two weeks ago but full houses have encouraged cinema owners to extend its run and screen it nationwide.

"We opted to release the movie only in six cinemas in the first week as it lacked big stars and some labelled it as an art-house movie," said Enamul Karim, the film's distributor.

"But it's a resounding success so far. It is pulling in crowds and other cinemas are taking it up."

He added that an Indian producer was in talks to buy the film rights.

"We have had bumper shows and the trend is very good. We are now planning to show the film until the end of August," Syed Razfature Rahman, manager of Balaka theatre in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, told AFP.

In the movie, Sushmita, a hijra, falls in love with a Hindu boy but the boy's parents refuse to accept Sushmita, eventually leading to her suicide.

Across South Asia, hijra communities of transvestites, eunuchs and asexual people are among the most marginalized groups in traditionally conservative societies.

Director Noman Robin said he made the film after he saw a transgender person attacked for using a female toilet at a shopping mall.

"The hijra was beaten in front of hundreds of people," he said.

Last October more than 1,000 hijras rallied in Dhaka for a government-sponsored demonstration to raise awareness of their rights.