Suman on her way to work at a disco in Delhi. Credit:Jason South The blessing, or curse, of a hijra is considered unusually potent because of their transgender nature. Hijras have traditionally survived by demanding money from families in return for blessing a newborn child or newly married couple. They also dance and sing and tell bawdy jokes at weddings and festivals. They are known for their aggressive collection tactics, which can include threats to strip unless they are paid to leave. Many families give them money because they fear being cursed. But advocates for hijras say they are being forced into sex work. ''The traditional function that hijras had in earlier times was singing, dancing and blessings at auspicious occasions, like births and marriages,'' says Rahul Singh, a community worker and activist who has been involved with hijra communities for more than a decade. ''But with changing times it has become more and more difficult for hijras to earn their livelihood through this source of income.''

In big cities, where hijras tend to live, the advent of high-rise flats and gated neighbourhoods has reduced their opportunities to collect money. ''People's attitudes have also been changing; they have become much more indifferent to them,'' says Singh. ''All this has really hurt the community and they are … opting for sex work and sometimes begging as well.'' The word hijra implies a journey between genders. ''It comes from the Arabic word 'hij', meaning a journey that has begun but not ended,'' says Singh. ''They have taken up a journey to leave the masculine form and become a woman but this cannot be completed because biologically they can never become a woman.'' Castration has always been a feature of the community. Those preparing for castration are called akwa hijras. Those who have been castrated are called nirvan hijras, meaning they have been released from their male gender. There is no hard and fast rule that hijras must have their genitals removed. ''Some of them opt for castration but some don't; it depends on the individual's choice,'' says Singh. But castration is a big decision and there can be serious medical complications. ''We are trying to help hijras who want to undergo castration to completely understand the possible complications and then let them make their own decisions,'' says Singh.

Ashok Row Kavi, an expert on India's sexual minorities, says hijras can fall into at least four ''clinical'' categories. ''There are transvestites who cross-dress as a fetish; transsexuals who feel they are in the wrong body; inter-sexed males, and cross-dressing gay males. If a person from any one of these joins a hijra group then they are called one.'' There is no official count but it is thought there could be 750,000 hijras. Despite their frequent public appearances, hijras are fiercely secretive. Their communities are tight-knit and have a ''highly feudal and secretive structure'', Kavi says. It is common for hijra households to refuse entry to strangers. But after a chance meeting on the streets of Old Delhi, Suman invited the Herald to visit the house where she lives with nine other young hijras. They rent space in a gloomy concrete building on the north-east fringe of India's capital, Delhi. A small factory producing lipstick cases operates from a room on the roof. Suman, 24, was wearing a very short black dress, and thick make-up covered acne scars on her face. Her housemates were adorned with cosmetics, jewellery and brightly coloured women's clothing. One of them, Sonia Rai, had blush caked on her face while her upper lip was sprouting a substantial moustache.

The hijra community is known for its highly structured networks of ''gurus'' (leaders) and ''chelas'' (followers). Kavi says hijra communities normally resemble a traditional Indian joint family. Suman is the undisputed leader of her household. Other members address her by the respectful title ''guruji'' and follow her instructions. In turn, Suman has an older hijra guru who lives elsewhere. ''This group is like my family now,'' Suman says. ''And I am their mother. They share their problems with me and I sort them out.'' Suman was born in a poor village near Kolkata, in eastern India. She says her family cast her out at the age of 10 because of her effeminate behaviour and she ran away to join a hijra group. ''From the time I was born my family suspected I was transsexual,'' she says. ''One day my mother asked me to leave the family … so I fled. I felt very bad and I cried all the time. Even now I'm very sad that my family pushed me away.''

Each member of the household has stories of rejection, vulnerability and isolation. The youngest member of Suman's household, Ritu, who is just 16, came from the same village after being cast off by her family. Suman visits her family about once a year but is angry about the way they treated her. ''They should have stood with me rather than following what society tells them,'' she says. Superstitions and prejudices about hijras are still strong in rural India. ''I feel more comfortable in Delhi than in my village,'' says Suman. ''There is a strong social stigma for transsexuals back there.'' This kind of prejudice had tragic consequences for Koyal Mollick, a 25-year-old hijra who lives with Suman. ''My family got rid of me very early in life but people in my village came to know I was a transsexual,'' she says. ''My sister was unable to find a husband because of this stigma and she recently committed suicide.'' Each one of Suman's group claimed to have been born without a penis or testicles. Koyal Mollick even lifted her dress to prove she had no genitalia. There was a small hole in her lower abdomen that allowed her to urinate. ''No one here has any sexual organs,'' says Suman.

India's two biggest religions, Hinduism and Islam, have helped create a variety of rich hijra cultures and identities across the sub-continent. In north India the community tends to have Muslim characteristics. This is attributed to the prominent role eunuchs played in the Mogul dynasty that ruled much of the subcontinent in the 17th and 18th centuries. ''Hijras had great power in that Muslim administration,'' says Rahul Singh. ''Most of the hijras in north India embrace Islam, or their mannerisms are very Islamic. They tend to take up a Muslim identity.'' Many hijras take on Muslim names even if they were born into Hindu families. In the Muslim neighbourhood of Mehrali, in south Delhi, there is a historic Sufi graveyard, Hijron ka Khanqah, where nearly 50 hijras are buried. Hijras from across the city, and other parts of north India, gather there to celebrate festivals with singing, dancing, prayer and feasting. Many transsexuals in north India now reject the term ''hijra'' and insist on being called ''kinnar'', a description they say is more respectful.

In the state of Tamil Nadu, in south India, the predominantly Hindu transgender community call themselves ''aravanis'' and follow Aravan, a character in the Hindu epic The Mahabharata who died a heroic death in battle. At a special festival each year in the town of Koovagam, aravanis ritually marry Aravan, then mourn his death. Tamil Nadu has officially recognised its transgender community and issues ration cards with a special ''third gender'' category. Targeted social services, including education and counselling, are also available to the community. Eunuchs are referred to in the earliest Hindu texts, the Vedas, written in the second millennium BC. There are well-known transgender role models in Hindu mythology. Perhaps the most prominent of these is Shikhandi, who, like Aravan, is a character in The Mahabharata. The child of King Drupad, Shikhandi had the body of a man but the soul of a woman. Despite feminine traits, Shikhandi was a respected and celebrated warrior. Hijras also identify with Shiva, one of Hinduism's highest gods. A popular form of Shiva is Ardhanarisvara, who is half-man, half-woman. However, transsexuals are not always portrayed positively in Hindu scriptures. One of The Mahabharata's heroes, the warrior Arjuna, was cursed to live a year as a eunuch after sinning.

Kavi says many Indians still fear that if they touch or interact with a hijra they might become impotent. Hindus consider it a bad omen if a hijra exposes herself in front of them. On a typical day, members of Suman's group get dressed and roam Delhi neighbourhoods to request money from households that have a newborn child or are about to host a wedding. Hijras call this ''tolly''. ''It is our due. We are entitled to it, and it is our dignity,'' Suman says. ''If we do not get our due we are not being respected.'' She complains that ''impersonators'' often poach business. ''Many come and imitate us in a bid to earn easy money.'' Suman blames these impostors, whom she describes as ''gays'', not hijras, for eroding hijras' traditional income and driving them into sex work. ''Earlier we were recognised and got some prestige but over the last decade more from our community have got involved in sex work and our reputation has got worse. ''In the past we were getting good money from families where there was a birth or a marriage but now we are getting less. This has forced us into sex work.''

Activists say prejudice towards hijras makes it difficult for them to get mainstream jobs and many feel sex work is their only alternative. A household of nine hijras in the Delhi neighbourhood of Shastri Park, not far from Suman's home, highlights this trend. They have given up dancing at weddings and collecting money at births and rely exclusively on sex work. They have also abandoned the traditional hijra-guru-and-follower household model. Instead they have a female guardian and landlady they call ''Mommy''. The home - effectively a brothel - has a series of gloomy rooms for entertaining clients. About 40 used condoms were scattered on the floor. The nine, all aged in their early 20s, trawl for clients outside the house and on a nearby street well-known for prostitution. They charge as little as 200 rupees for sexual services. The growing number of hijras involved in sex work threatens to further undermine the community's traditional sources of income. ''The aura that hijras have comes from a belief in society that they don't have sex,'' says one expert on hijras . ''That's why people believe they have special powers to bless and curse and why society seeks their blessing and gives them money. If it becomes very public that they have sex, it will hurt their livelihoods.'' Kavi believes hijra customs are slowly vanishing. ''Low- and middle-class families can't pay them much,'' he says. ''They are getting less because, whether they like it or not, they are not begging in front of Mogul monarchs. As India changes they will have to change, otherwise they are finished.''

HIV poses another threat to hijras. Stigma and discrimination have driven sexual minorities such as hijras away from mainstream health services in India, making them more vulnerable to infection. The closed nature of hijra groups has made effective HIV education very difficult. ''They can't access government services and government can't access them, so there is a huge barrier,'' says Kavi, who is an adviser to the joint United Nations program on HIV and AIDS. ''HIV infection among hijras is at horrendous levels in some places.'' Local studies in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai have found HIV rates among hijras above 40 per cent. Kavi says those who have been castrated are at ''extreme risk''. Studies have shown infection rates of up to 70 per cent in this group. He laments that many senior hijras refuse to face up to the scale of the problem. ''They never accept the fact, so many of them are infected.'' The HIV risk is not enough to deter Suman from sex work. Most weekends she puts on a dress that shows off her new breasts and goes to malls and dance bars in search of customers. ''My clients are high-society businessmen, those with white-collar jobs,'' says Suman. ''All night with me costs 5000 rupees, two hours 2000.''

One of her favourite haunts is Vasant Vihar, an upmarket neighbourhood in south Delhi popular with diplomats and expatriates. ''Those who can't satisfy with girls, come to us,'' says Suman. ''I give more feelings to my clients so they pay me more. I'm more intense than girls. Usually, they want sex in car. Sometime, they take me to a hotel or a flat.'' Suman hopes to stop sex work in about six years, then ''train and handle'' her hijras. She even has wedding plans. ''Sometimes clients fall in love with people like me and they get married. I hope that happens. I'd like to fall in love with a man and get married.'' With Som Patidar