Boy or girl? India's hermaphrodites slowly fit in

By Rituparna Bhowmik

NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) - Born with both male and female genitalia, a life of uncertainty seemed to await Ali and his family, but changing attitudes means hermaphrodites once-scorned in India are finding their place.

"Every mother waits eagerly for the doctor to announce the sex of the newborn. They tell you if it's a boy or a girl," said Zubeda, Ali's mother, requesting their real names not be used.

"When the doctor is silent, you know something is wrong," she said. "Since there is a social stigma attached in India with people with undetermined sex, I was apprehensive".

Even a decade ago, the secrecy surrounding such cases made it impossible for mixed-gender children to choose their identities and find doctors able to start timely treatment, she said.

Perceived as eunuchs, children with ambiguous genitalia would be forcibly taken away from parents by 'hijras' or eunuchs, to be brought up in secluded communities of their own.

Shunned by a society that cringes at variants, they make a living by singing and dancing. They are often poor and ridiculed.

For Ali, originally raised as a girl, two surgeries and a radical lifestyle change have allowed the 12-year old to live as he wants, as a normal boy.

"As soon as he could walk and talk, he knew that he wanted to be a boy, and look how happy he is today," his mother said.