Hijras are officially recognised as a third gender throughout countries in the Indian subcontinent,[10][11][12] being considered neither completely male nor female.

[citation needed] A number of terms across the culturally and linguistically diverse Indian subcontinent represent similar sex or gender categories.

[34] Furthermore, in India a feminine male who takes a "receptive" role in sex with a man will often identify as a kothi (or the local equivalent term).

Hijras and kothis often have a name for these masculine sexual or romantic partners; for example, panthi in Bangladesh, giriya in Delhi or sridhar in Cochin.

[33] A qualitative, interview-based study found that those who fall under the umbrella of being hijra tend to identify with certain 'schools of thought' including Khusrapan and Zananapan.

[37] The ancient Indian erotic book Kama Sutra mentions the performance of fellatio by feminine people of a third sex (tritiya prakriti).

[13][14] Franciscan travelers in the 1650s noted the presence of "men and boys who dress like women" roaming the streets of Thatta, in modern Pakistan.

[43] Beginning in the 1850s, colonial authorities deployed various strategies to end hijra practices, which they saw as "a breach of public decency" and incapable of "moral transformation," as part of their influence on colonial-era sexuality in India.

[45] By 1870, no high-ranking British officials argued against the implementation of special legislation to address the 'hijra problem', thus solidifying an anti-hijra campaign all across the Indian subcontinent.

[45] Hijra communities remain throughout modern states of Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh, although they continue to face social marginalisation and police abuse.

[47] In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, hijras became the subject of more attention, being the focus of numerous documentaries, news features, ethnographies, monographs and dissertations.

[50] As with transgender people in most of the world, they face extreme discrimination in health, housing, education, employment, immigration, law, and any bureaucracy that is unable to place them into male or female gender categories.

[42] In October 2013, Pakistani Christians and Muslims (Shia and Sunni) put pressure on the landlords of Imamia Colony to evict any transgender residents.

[54] In a study of Bangladeshi hijras, participants reported not being allowed to seek healthcare at the private chambers of doctors, and experiencing abuse if they go to government hospitals.

[58] An Indian study consisting of 68 transgender participants reported that respondents expressed having intense feelings of low self-worth, shame, depression and suicidal thoughts, internalizing the negative views the society around them holds.

Many hijra experience a lack of a support system, facing rejection from family members or difficulties in terms of maintaining steady relationships with romantic partners.

This rejection from society contributes to struggles with mental health as well as trans sex workers feeling obligated to accept the violence and stigmas they are subject to.

[62] Beginning in 2006, hijras were engaged to accompany Patna city revenue officials to collect unpaid taxes, receiving a 4-percent commission.

[citation needed] The governments of both India (1994)[66] and Pakistan (2009)[67] have recognised hijras as a "third sex", thus granting them the basic civil rights of every citizen.

[69] In April 2014, Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan declared transgender to be the third gender in Indian law in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India.

Our society often ridicules and abuses the Transgender community and in public places like railway stations, bus stands, schools, workplaces, malls, theatres, hospitals, they are sidelined and treated as untouchables, forgetting the fact that the moral failure lies in the society's unwillingness to contain or embrace different gender identities and expressions, a mindset which we have to change.Justice Radhakrishnan said that transgender people should be treated consistently with other minorities under the law, enabling them to access jobs, healthcare and education.

[citation needed] When the man begged her forgiveness to have the curse removed, she relented only after he agreed to run in the woods and act like a woman.

[citation needed] The primary temple to this goddess is located in Gujarat[75] and it is a place of pilgrimage for hijras, who see Bahuchara Mata as a patroness.

Impressed with their devotion, Rama grants hijras the boon to confer blessings on people during auspicious inaugural occasions like childbirth and weddings.

[78] Each year in Tamil Nadu, during April and May, hijras celebrate an eighteen-day religious festival at a temple located in the village Koovagam in the Ulundurpet taluk in Villupuram district.

BBC Three documentary India's Ladyboys as well as the National Geographic Channel television series Taboo depict personal experiences of hijras attending this festival.

A notable turning point occurred in 1974 when real hijras appeared during a song-and-dance sequence in Kunwaara Baap ("The Unmarried Father").

[90][91] The 1992 film Immaculate Conception[92] by Jamil Dehlavi is based upon the culture-clash between a western Jewish couple seeking fertility at a Karachi shrine known to be blessed by a Sufi fakir called 'Gulab Shah' and the group of Pakistani eunuchs who guard it.

It featured some of the country's top male television actors—Sohail Asghar, Nabeel, Qazi Wajid, and Kamran Jilani playing the roles of hijras.

For the first time, influential male actors showed their support for hijra rights during interviews, pointing out that in Pakistani English at that time eunuch was the term to describe a transgender person, and khwaja sara had not yet replaced what is now considered a derogatory term due to decades of heckling and name calling.