Gurus can give data of transgender people: official

ISLAMABAD:

Leaders of the transgender community, commonly known as gurus, are a reliable source for providing an authentic data of people who identify as transgenders, said Federal Ombudsman Commissioner for Children and Transgender Syeda Viqarun Nisa on Thursday.

“There is need to engage leaders of the transgender community for building an accurate database,” said Nisa said.

The commissioner said collection of evidence-based data was imperative to prepare socio-economic profile of transgender community and it could only be possible through involvement of gurus the leaders of eunuch groups who give shelter to the abandoned transgender children. “These gurus have the actual details,” she added.

Highlighting the issues being faced by her office in facilitating them, she said “At present, we are relying on the statistics collected in the population census of 2017, showing that the country has only 10,400 people who are transgender. This data is not correct at all,” she asserted.

However, transgender rights activist Nadeem Kashish who heads an NGO called SAAFAR voiced her concern over guru culture saying they compel them for begging and use them for unethical jobs for money.

Responding to a query, she said gurus were the right people to gather exact data of the community. Kashish said she was collecting the data of her community and so far 5,000 members had been registered with her organisation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2021.