Left in the lurch

The dark clouds of April's nor'westers loom large over Lara's tomorrow.

With no income for almost a month and an eviction notice hanging over her head, the 27-year-old doesn't know where to take shelter when the rain comes.

"My landlord ordered me to vacate the house immediately, without paying last month's rent," said Lara, a member of the capital's third gender community known as hijra. 

Her earnings have been zero since the middle of last month, as the coronavirus outbreak forced the country into shutdown. She couldn't pay Tk 4,000 in rent for March.

"I told my landlord about my problems, but he didn't pay any heed. I requested him to allow me to stay here for at least three more months, as nobody will rent out a room to me in this crisis," she told this correspondent over the phone on April 14.

"I don't even have the capability to pay the rent for a new room," wailed Lara, who lives alone in the capital's Jurain.

Like her, many other hijra community members in the city are worried about getting evicted from their homes for failing to pay rent, found a study.

Innovation Consulting Ltd, a private research organisation, talked to 51 hijras of different areas of the capital earlier this month about the impact of Covid-19 on their lives.

Among those interviewed, 98 percent live in rented houses and 61 percent share rent with an average of six persons. The average rent of a unit per month is Tk 4,176, which is about 33 percent of the respondent's monthly income.

Since the virus outbreak began, income of most hijras decreased drastically.

They usually make a living by extorting money from commuters or shopkeepers, doing sex work, other casual jobs or performing Badhaai, a custom of conferring blessings on a newborn by singing and dancing.

Of the respondents of Innovation's study, 82 percent did not earn anything, while 18 percent said they only made an average of Tk 1,444 during the last two weeks of March.

A survey conducted by Brac over the phone between March 31 and April 1 on 22 hijras in the capital found similar results. Hijra sex worker Tina, who took part in the survey, used to go out for her work at night. She said her client number was dwindling from early March and since the lockdown her income became zero, as she is staying home all the time.

This correspondent too interviewed 15 hijras from around the country. They have been sitting idle with no or little money to buy food for the past one month due to the lockdown.

"Our main job is to collect money from shopkeepers or doing Badhaai. But now, who will give us money when they themselves cannot eat properly? Almost in every alley, there is a barricade. We don't have any way left to survive in these harrowing times," said Jonak from Jurain.

Pakhi from Khulna said, "We cannot make people understand that we are just like day labourers. We need to pay half our earnings to our gurus [leaders], and the rest is divided among group members."

But now, even their gurus cannot help them out much, she added.

Parbati, a guru of 25 hijras in Jurain, said she has already given some money to her "chalas" (followers).

"They give us [money] year-round. So this time, I tried to give each of them Tk 500 to 1,000 based on my ability. I don't have enough savings to survive without any earnings for days. If the situation doesn't get better, we, the gurus, might not be able to survive in the coming weeks," she lamented and expressed her concern for the hijras working under her.

Hijras told this correspondent that their earnings are usually high during Pahela Baishakh and the two Eids. But this time, they were all at home on the Bangla New Year. They fear that Eid-ul-fitr will go the same.

Innovation's study showed 86 percent of 51 hijras had to cut down their food expenses.

Brac had a similar finding. They found most hijras are having only one meal a day consisting of rice and lentils and cooking one kilogram of rice instead of three, shared by 12 people.

Most of them are borrowing money from their gurus and other members of their communities and sometimes buying grocery items on credit from nearby shops.

Lara, who also supports her mother in the absence of her father, had to borrow Tk 25,000 to make ends meet.

Innovation's research showed 43 percent of hijras have a loan and the average outstanding loan amount is Tk 13,777. All 51 respondents of the study reported that the current situation compelled them to stop sending money home.

INSUFFICIENT STATE SUPPORT

Both the studies state that a majority of hijras are not receiving government support.

Among the respondents of Innovation's study, 59 percent did not receive any kind of support, while 41 percent received on average Tk 940 from the government and private individuals.

Of the 22 hijras Brac interviewed, 16 did not receive any state support.

"I heard that the local political leader is collecting NIDs [national identification cards] to make a list to provide support. We went there to submit our NIDs, but seeing that we are hijras, they did not take our cards. Rather they drove us away," the Brac report quoted Shejuti, a 30-year-old hijra.

The report also mentioned that hijras are getting left out from government support distributed by local political leaders because many of them are not on the voter list. 

Although they were officially recognised as the third gender in 2013, only a few hundred were enlisted as hijra in the voter list updated this year in March.

According to the social welfare ministry's website, there are around 9,285 hijras in the country.

Parbati told The Daily Star that the local commissioner had offered to give her 10 relief cards, but she refused.

She cannot distribute such a meagre amount among 200 people of her community, she said.

Pakhi claimed that out of 220 hijras in Khulna division only 27 received some government relief.

Fear of dying from coronavirus is also prevalent among the hijra community, as they lack proper information on COVID-19 and the dos and don'ts, said the Brac study.

It further mentions that hijras are facing harassment from many including law enforcement agency members, who perceive them as potential infected persons because of their outdoor activities in groups and unsafe sex work.