Hijra community is a very small portion of the total population of Bangladesh, who are generally neglected, trampled and mistreated in the society. According to a preliminary survey conducted by the Department of Social Services (DSS), the number of Hijras in Bangladesh is around 12,000. They are mostly discriminated in grounds of healthcare, safe-home, and education. Most of the initiatives of the country attempt towards ensuring their education, rehabilitation, and social security. The Department of Social Services (DSS) under the Ministry of Social Welfare has taken inevitable initiative to materialize “Program for improving the living standard of Hijra community”. The program was initially launched in seven districts of the country as a pilot program in the year 2012-13. The number of beneficiaries was 485 in the starting year (2012-13). Initially, student stipend and imparting training program was carried out. In the following year, the tools of the project were increased. It included old age, disabled or insolvent allowances, student stipend, imparting training and post training financial support schemes. As a result, the number of beneficiaries was also increased, touching a maximum of 7650 people for the consecutive two years of 2017-18 and 2018-19. However, the number of program beneficiary plummeted to 5767 people and the post-training financial support seems to be absent in the running year 2019-20. One thing is conspicuous that out of the four enabling instruments, the number of beneficiaries remained higher for old age, disabled or insolvent allowances and lower for student stipend. 

The central objective of the study is three-fold: 

1. To evaluate the program towards improve the standard of living of the Hijra community, 

2. To explore the changing role of their socio-economic condition and

3. To assess the success as well as failure of this program to create employment opportunity.

Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to capture the impact of the program. The sample individuals for questionnaire survey will be selected from those who received grants from the “Program for improving the Living Standard of the Hijra Community” between 2012-13 to 2018-19. The Department of Social Services provided lists of 41,373 individuals. From these lists, statistically significant number of beneficiary individuals will be selected systematically from 33 districts of the country. In order to understand the real impact of the program, almost similar number of beneficiary sample will be also selected from non-program individuals from the same districts in order to compare the beneficiaries with non-beneficiaries. FGDs and case studies will be conducted to capture the qualitative aspects of the program.

Funding Agency: Department of Social Services (DSS)

Principal Investigator/Study Director: Dr. Mohammad Harunur Rashid Bhuyan, Research Fellow, BIDS

Duration: December 2019 to August 2020