By Aditi Sharan, Waipapa Taumata Rau, Aotearoa / The University of Auckland, New Zealand

The binary representation of gender categories has dominated the idea of gender in disaster risk reduction (DRR) for a long time. The conventional perception of gender in DRR is based on the Western understanding, where it is perceived as a categorical distinction between men and women and imposed on rest of the world (Gaillard, 2021). Overlooking the contextual realities across different societies, the calculated blindness by using “gender” and “women” synonymously has led to policies being continuously based on unexamined assumptions in disaster research in the West (Enarson, 2012). Similar to Spivak’s take on the assumed neutrality of Western feminism that tends to speak for “all women” being a form of cultural imperialism (Spivak, 1988), the gender diverse groups in South Asia being clubbed under the category of the “other” or the umbrella of LGBTIQ+ is equally problematic. These ‘vulnerable categories’ based are formed by pushing those who do not embody the norm to the margins of the social structure through the dominance of one group, by defining their abnormality and faults (Staszak, 2009). The hijra community, believed to be the oldest known ethnic non-binary group in India (Ramos, 2018), is one such group that have faced the consequences of this interpretation. As part of a broader qualitative research done in Puri, Odisha, India, this paper discusses how the hijra community is “Othered”, with the backdrop of Cyclone Fani (2019). It tries to go beyond just their vulnerability, looking into its root causes and also hijras’ agency at the time of disasters.

Cyclone Fani, 2019

Cyclone Fani caused widespread destruction on the eastern coast of India. The hijra groups were affected differentially because of their existing vulnerabilities which were exacerbated during this time, with limited resources to cope. They were immediately rendered homeless as water filled up their rented rooms and were left with no food or clean drinking water for days at a stretch. Some lost their main means of livelihoods as their shops were wrecked. Hence, leaving them with no place to live, nothing to eat and no source of income for days to come. Unable to access the cyclone shelters, some slept at the railway station. Few who did manage to get in the shelters were not in priority when the relief was distributed and had to manage with whatever people at the shelter offered to them out of goodwill. NGOs stated that staying at the shelter was not the problem – it was the use of toilets. There were queues, they did not know where to stand and were often told off by the people and officials. The relief from the government was also categorised for men and women and hijras were ultimately left out. A few eventually got compensation later, months after the cyclone. Relief received immediately after the cyclone came mostly as charity from hotel owners and later by NGOs.

Disasters or Everyday Life?

A question then arises: why did the cyclone manifest itself in the lives of these people like it did? According to Spivak (1988), the subaltern with no history and no voice is a colonial invention. Who once held important positions in politics and royal durbars, hijras were criminalised under the Criminal Tribes’ Act, 1871 (Sinha, 2016). It had a separate section on who the British classified as “Eunuchs” (again a Western interpretation), according to which for instance, there was penalty for “appearing in female clothes; or dancing in public, or for hire” (CTA, 1871), amongst other things. The narrative of reality provided by imperialism is often established as the normative knowledge (Spivak, 1988). The Act, even though repealed later, symbolically marked the beginning of their marginalisation in India (Sinha, 2016) and is linked with the issues they face now.

Nowadays, othering in a hijra person’s life starts early in their life. It primarily takes place in the form of verbal abuse, physical and sexual violence, even by their own families. Their “difference” from what/who is considered “normal” in the eyes of society based on the foregoing historical narrative is met with retaliation. Symbolic actions like cutting off hair, forcefully making them wear “male” clothing, stopping their education are all forms of abuse that results in their othering. In the end, they are abandoned by their families and are left to fend for themselves while they navigate through the city at very young ages. They face street harassment and discrimination at their place of work. With limited skills because of unavailability of opportunities, they become ineligible for employment. They perform their traditional role of badhai as their primary source of income in weddings and functions. But with decreasing numbers of such occasions, they have been forced into begging, sex work and doing odd jobs, which also pose a risk to their health. With very limited resources at their disposal, they are only able to occupy the most vulnerable areas to live in the city like the suburbs and slums located in the low-lying regions, which they can afford and are accepted to stay in. Therefore, increasing their existing vulnerabilities at the time of disasters, which was observed during Cyclone Fani.

Way Forward

Despite having suffered in their daily lives and more so during the cyclone, these groups have shown the power of their agency by helping community members to get to safety when the water levels rose. Also, with whatever relief they received, they shared with people in much worse conditions than them, especially the elderly experiencing homelessness and children. Their support system and social safety nets are formed by their strong internal network and solidarity under the leadership of their guru. Hijras as a collective is their strength which needs to be acknowledged. They have their struggles, but they also have success stories that need visibility. Therefore, to understand their issues and needs, their vulnerabilities and capacities (which is engrained in their everyday lives), it is imperative to recognise, acknowledge and understand their history and contexts for more gender sensitive and inclusive DRR. g

References:

1. (1871). The Criminal Tribes’ Act. (Act XXVII of 1871). India. Legislative Department.
2. de Oliveira Ramos, R. C. (2018). The Voice of an Indian Trans Woman: a Hijra Autobiography. Indialogs, 5, 71-88.
3. Enarson, E. P. (2012). Women confronting natural disaster: From vulnerability to resilience (p. 245). Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
4. Gaillard, J. C. (2021). The invention of disaster: power and knowledge in discourses on hazard and vulnerability. Routledge.
5. Sinha, S. (2016). Social Exclusion of Transgender in the Civil Society: A Case Study of the Status of the Transgender in Kolkata. International Journal of Sociology, Social Anthropology and Social Policy, 2(1), 58-73.
6. Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the Subaltern Speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture(pp. 271–313). University of Illinois Press.
7. Staszak, J. F. (2009). Other/otherness. International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography. Elsevier.

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