Lahore, Pakistan -
Pakistan will count transgender people in its national census
for the first time when it surveys its population in March this
year following a top court ruling on Monday.
The Lahore High Court issued the order to the government,
National Database and Registration Authority, and the interior
ministry with a government official assuring the court that the
transgender community will be part of the 2017 census.
This stemmed from a petition filed by transgender Waqar Ali
last November that argued Pakistan's transgender community had
been marginalised and their fundamental rights should be
recognised by including them in the sixth national census.
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed
the order, issuing directives to enforce the transgender
community's basic rights.
The move was welcomed by Pakistan's transgender community.
"We are glad that we will be counted as will be other
people," transgender rights worker Almas Bobby told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation.
"Hope we get equal citizenship and equal status."
There are no official figures on the number of transgender
people living in Pakistan but advocacy group Trans Action
estimates there are at least 500,000 in the country with a
population of 190 million.
In 2012, Pakistan's Supreme Court declared equal rights for
transgender citizens, including the right to inherit property
and assets, preceded a year earlier by the right to vote.
But shunned by mainstream society, transgender individuals
in Pakistan are still often forced into begging, prostitution or
dancing to earn a living.
However transgender people are also sometimes venerated in
the South Asian tradition of according spiritual powers to
eunuchs and others who fall outside traditional gender
divisions.
Nepal's 2011 census was hailed as the first national census
globally to allow people to register as a gender other than male
or female while India also counted transgender people in its
national census for the first time in 2011.
In 2013 Germany became the first European country to allow
parents of babies born with no clearly-defined gender
characteristics to leave the 'male/female' field on birth
certificates blank, creating a 'third sex' category.
Citizens of Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh can choose
from three genders for their passports.
Pakistan, estimated to be the sixth largest country by
population, will conduct its national census in March following
a gap of nearly 19 years.
The last census was carried out in 1998 when the population
was calculated at 132 million people.