Searching for eunuchs

Due to the non-availability of data on the number of eunuchs in Punjab, the Social Welfare Department and the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will start a joint venture from January 25 to register all eunuchs in Punjab and bring them in the electoral rolls.
NADRA, which had earlier been reluctant in initiating the registration process, has decided to complete the task by dividing it in two phases. In the first phase, the eunuchs willing to be registered would be included in the voting lists with the cooperation of the Social Welfare Department and the District Election Commission Office. In the second phase, a search operation would be launched to find the remaining eunuchs in all districts of the province, with the cooperation of the police.
Ostracised and unrecorded: In Pakistan, eunuchs have been ostracised and forced to live in segregated ghettos as their families feel embarrassed in introducing them in public. A majority of the eunuchs leave their homes to hide the identity of their families. Severing all blood relations, they declare their ‘gurus’ as their guardians.
Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had directed the concerned departments to make feasibility plans to protect the rights of the eunuchs. In this regard, a meeting, chaired by Punjab Social Welfare Department Secretary Akram Javed was held on January 12, 2012.
In the said meeting, no representative was present from the Health and Home Departments. Their absence was questioned as both the departments were assigned the responsibility to grant protection and free healthcare to the eunuchs.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Social Welfare Department Director General Malik Muhammad Aslam said, “Neither any government department, nor the non-government organisations (NGOs) or associations representing the eunuchs, have the data on their exact number in the province.” He said that only 104 eunuchs were registered with NADRA at present, while the Social Welfare Department had a list of only 2460 eunuchs. He said that NADRA would provide a list of registered eunuchs to Social Welfare Department on January 25, 2012.
Gurus, not fathers: Aslam said that earlier, the eunuchs desired to have the names of their gurus, instead of their real fathers’, entered in the NADRA registration forms. Therefore, the Social Welfare Department has removed the requirement of disclosing the father’s name, hoping for improved cooperation from the eunuchs.
NADRA Managing Director Lt Col Nawaz Ahmed said that the registration of eunuchs was difficult as they changed their residences frequently. “However, NADRA had amicably resolved the issue of categorisation of eunuchs into three categories of male khawajasara, female khawajasara and khunsa for the registration of eunuchs.”
He said that during the first phase of the registration, the NADRA representative, in coordination with the social welfare district officer, will make the lists of eunuchs, with their names and addresses. He said that in the second phase, the remaining eunuchs would be searched and registered.
Provincial Election Commissioner Sheikh Jalil Ahmed told Pakistan Today that 104 eunuchs were registered in the voters’ list, however, a complete list of registered eunuchs would be provided to the Social Welfare Department in February, 2012. The provincial election commissioner has inserted one category, ‘khawajasara’, in the election commission performa, while NADRA has put the three categories of ‘male khawajasara’, ‘female khawajasara’ and ‘khunsa’. Therefore, the election commission performa needs to be changed to accommodate the three categories.
Dr Muhammad Aslam Khaki advocate, the petitioner of eunuchs in the apex court, told Pakistan Today that he had suggested to the NADRA representatives to use their mobile vans to register the eunuchs. He said that the NADRA teams should locate the eunuchs according to their addresses provided by the Social Welfare Department and if they were not found on the given addresses, NADRA should take two evidences of their displacement from the dwellers of the vicinity.
Police could help: Aslam said that the police could help NADRA in finding the eunuchs but no representative of the police department was present in the meeting, which showed the irresponsible attitude of the Home Department. He said that each police station had the record of the residents of the area, which could prove helpful in locating the eunuchs. He said that the eunuchs’ representatives should be elected from their respective districts and made part of the registration process to protect the rights of the eunuchs. Aslam said that currently, there were several factions of eunuchs, who were fighting against each other over the right to represent the eunuch community in the process of enlisting them in the voting lists. He said that a suggestion was sent to the Health Department to issue instructions to all the medical facilities to write the gender of each new born baby, including the eunuchs.
Talking to Pakistan Today, She-Male Association of Pakistan President Almas Boby said that at present, she had no record of the number of eunuchs in Pakistan. Almas Boby said that she would be present at the office of the provincial election commissioner on January 25, where she would present all the records she had about eunuchs.