This article is about the third gender - for the Islamic flight, see Hijra.

Hijra or hijra is a South Asian term for transgender or intersex people in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, some of whom are eunuchs by choice. Hijras are officially recognized as a third gender in several South Asian countries, where they are considered neither fully male nor fully female.

The term "hijra" is a Hindi Urdu word derived from the Semitic Arabic root hjr* meaning "to break with, abandon, desert, cast out, emigrate, flee". The Indian use of the word hijra has traditionally been translated into English as eunuch (eunuch) or hermaphrodite (hermaphrodite), where "the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition."

Hijra are also known as Aravani, Aruvani or Jagappa. In many languages of India, especially outside northwest India, other terms such as "chhakka" are used. Hijras have been historically recorded in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times, for example in the Kama Sutra (from 200 AD).

Many hijras live in well-defined and organized living and economic communities, led by a guru-mother. The most important relationship in the hijra community is that of guru (master, teacher) and chela (disciple). A guru-mother must provide for the material and spiritual needs of her disciples and is entitled to loyalty and a share of her income in return.

These communities have sustained themselves for generations through the "adoption" of biologically male adolescents or children who have been rejected by their family of origin and others for their feminine behavior and flee to the hijras to live fully their feminine gender identity, or who live in abject poverty, sometimes after a period of homosexual prostitution. Many hijra work as sex workers for their survival.

Few hijras, however, are born intersex. Most are born physically male, but many have a female gender identity in the sense of transsexuality or other transgender forms. It is not uncommon for them to undergo total castration called nirwaan, often at a young age, to prevent further masculinization of their bodies. They live as women, and some hijras achieve significant feminization through such an operation.

Linguistically, hijras usually describe themselves as female, as transsexual or even as transgender and dress accordingly. Nevertheless, the conservative outside world often refers to them as eunuchs or "castrated men".

Since the late 20th century, some hijra activists and Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have lobbied for official recognition of the hijra as a kind of third gender or third gender identity, as neither male nor female.

In India, the Hijras were recognized as the third gender in 2009, and in Pakistan in 2011, where they were regionally referred to as Khusra. This made Hijras the only officially recognized third gender in the world that year. In Bangladesh, hijras were granted recognition in 2013 and have since enjoyed preferential treatment in education. In India, all hijras, as well as transgender people, eunuchs and intersex people, were recognized as a third gender by the Supreme Court in April 2014. Nepal recognised the legal existence of a third gender in 2015 and - like India - allows a corresponding gender entry in official documents; there, in addition to some hijras, there are also meti and kothi (see also Divers as well as countries with a third gender entry).