Impacts of Covid-19 on the life of Eunuch’s (Hijra) in district Hyderabad, Sindh province of Pakistan

Abstract

The endeavor of the present study is to describe the impacts of covid-19 on the life of eunuchs (hijra) in district Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. In order to investigate the impacts of covid-19 on the life of eunuch’s in-depth interviews were performed on those persons who are by birth eunuch including Guru who is usually the leader of that particular group and three Chelas who are the followers of guru. Sample was collected through the snowball sampling technique qualitatively. For the purpose, all interviews were transcribed first then main themes were extracted from each interview. These major themes were: offended by Socio-Economically depressed, facing mentally and physically disturbance due to corona virus. Based on the interviews, the results revealed that, eunuchs were facing lot of predicament during covid situations because eunuchs were dependant on the begging, dancing, as well as involving in the different local meetings which were totally closed due to the COVID-19. However, in that situation, the eunuchs were being ignored by the people, and no any funding was provided them for support. However, internationally they need to be given all those rights as the locally met. The findings of the study are supportive and have potential to guide the intervention plans for enhancing the life of eunuch community people. Finally, the study recommends that, there must be the active policies for eunuchs which should highlight the same enjoyments for eunuchs as met to the local people.

Keywords

• Eunuchs, Corona virus (COVID-19), Socioeconomic conditions, Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan