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THEY ARE LED INTO DARKNESS!!!...

By: Maryam Pyar Ali Lakhdir

“saajh gai gali meri amma sunhere ghote mein!!! Ao re lala morien, arey badai ho badai, allah ne tere ghar chand sa mukhra utara hia, allah is ki umar daraz kare, are bache ki amma kuch nazrana to dede”.
These ear striking sounds with clapping all the way round, keep praying all the time, shave like a men in a soul of women. These creations are mostly known by everyone and this cruel society has named this creation with abusive and disrespectful labels. Local people tag them as khadra, chahka, hijraa, 3rd person or alien of 3rd world. But if we go through the Urdu literature, they are known by a very deferential name, a respect which everybody has right to have. They were called as khowaja sira, khasra or zanka by the moghalian empires; but alas! This was only limited to Mongolian era. With the downfall of Mongolian empires, the respect given to these khowaja sira also diminishes and exist no more. And the society, that is “we” are treating them as the garbage of society.

Is the respect always associated with high roof castles, if not, then why they are treated as the futile and useless part of society? Don’t we think that they are like us, the same human identity except the sexual deviance, but if we self evaluate us, we will came to know that every creation has some area of lacking, no one is perfect then who has given us the right to stamp someone as normal or abnormal just on the basis of sexual difference. We who tag ourselves as normal being, sexually perfect are the one who create this difference, we are the one who are constructing this indistinct and ambiguous identity of them and further spoiling their identity rather than giving them respect.

It’s rightly said that “GOD never creates garbage”. When GOD the creator of this universe doesn’t make difference in his creation then as a part of his creature, do we have rights to treat any one as the garbage of society and make them as a separate and infertile part of society.

This teasing by the society and the internal feeling of incompleteness makes khowaja sira to feel like fish out of water. Every day, every hour, they just get hatred from society but still they are sharing happiness, spread loved to all, which I feel is the most lacking element in our society. It’s rightly said by Mohsin, the greatest poet
Har cheez tere shehar ki mehngi lagi Mohsin, (every thing in this society is so expensive)
Magar, insan tere shehar ke sastee lage mujhe. (But human in this society is the cheapest thing of all.)

Our miserable behavior toward them make them move toward darkness, a place where nights came with crying spells with dusk of weeping, where their own shadows leave them, where there is no hope of sunbeams, its seems like a pathless journey with no end and makes them to lead their life as a prostitute, beggars, street dancers which a normal being like you don’t want to have. But will you allow them to work as a servant or as a maids in your houses, will this society will accept them as a worker in any organization. Most probably no, then do we have rights to claim on their professions. Very sadly, we, the society is promoting these professions by not accepting them as human, not giving them the same dignity which we are expecting from others and then blame them about the increment of the sexually transmitted diseases and other communicable diseases. No one like to have these type of professions, we think that khowaja sira are fond of dancing but reality is that no one like to dance and make their fun in front of strange people in different occasions then why they will like it. It’s just that they adopt these characteristics in majbori (out of compulsion) to feed their soul because they are devoid of private and government jobs.

Health access for them is just the other element which pays no heed to. Behaviors of health care professionals with them make them move away from their healthy life style. We, the health care professionals take oath as to serve without any discrimination of race color, age, gender then why such a big difference while treating them. Are we making our promise? Are we fulfilling it? From making prank to the queue of bank, from the job of standard to place in grave yard, they are neglected and are treated as a useless part of society.

It seems that there is no one to protect them, they all alone in this world, it’s rightly said that those who takes themselves a step forward to change, God helps them to have their destiny. This population themselves want to change the perception of society and are ready to change the world. The guru of khowaja sira works for the rights of them. They have initiated union as “JIA” which stands as gender interactive alliance. This is the first association run by their guru which helps these people to have the rights of proper job, solving their problems, dealing with their medical problems, providing skills to them. It’s very shameful that this separate entity is there because of rejection from us. Further, on 23 December 2009, the application for having equal rights is accepted by the Supreme Court purely on the efforts by them. The Supreme Court has declared the policy that they will recollect the loans and further will have their national id to have proper government job.

As Pravs, J. said “Everything in this world can be seen as you wish to. Good or Bad; Simple or Complicated; Easy or Difficult. It’s not how things are; it’s about how you look up to them...and how you look up to them is all up to you.” We as a society have to change our perception, it’s now our turn to prove them that we are here for supporting them, that we are ready to accept them as a part of our society, as an element of this nature. It’s our turn to accept that there is always a hidden truth behind everything lies in the nature.

On the individual level, we should give respect to them and should accept them as the same human identity so that the inequality resolves. We should acknowledge their hard work and should lend a hand to provide a better support. They are also human, they have the same capabilities, the same abilities, its just they need to polish them which would done better if the whole society will be united and help them out.