{"id":60152867,"date":"2026-09-25T16:17:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?post_type=photo_story&p=60152867"},"modified":"2026-09-25T16:17:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:17:38","slug":"for-indias-hijra-women-rising-heat-comes-with-dangerous-trade-offs","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/for-indias-hijra-women-rising-heat-comes-with-dangerous-trade-offs\/","title":{"rendered":"For India\u2019s Hijra women, rising heat comes with dangerous trade-offs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is three in the afternoon at a traffic signal in New Delhi on a hot summer day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time the light turns red, 27-year-old Fiza* walks into the middle of the road, clapping her hands in the Hijra community\u2019s distinctive rhythm before offering motorists blessings in exchange for cash. When the light turns green, she retreats to a scraggly bush nearby. The area offers no shade, no drinking water and no place to sit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we keep standing out there for too long, we\u2019ll faint,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She adjusts the heavily embroidered pallu<\/em> (draped end) of her sari, its silvery threads flashing in the afternoon sun. \u201cBegging is also a performance,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople believe we possess the power to bless, so appearance matters,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have to look the part. The sari has to shine to catch people\u2019s attention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hijras are a distinct South Asian community that includes transgender and intersex people, with a long tradition of bestowing blessings at life\u2019s new beginnings, particularly births and marriages. For generations, begging at traffic intersections has remained one of their most visible<\/a> sources of income in India, as community members continue to be excluded from formal employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"woman<\/div>
As the lights turn red, Fiza\u2019s 22-year-old companion Mohini* walks out into the traffic to offer blessings to drivers in exchange for money (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"back<\/div>
The women see begging as a performance, just like the work some do at weddings and other celebrations. They dress the part in colourful saris, meticulously styling their hair (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A 2017 Kerala Development Society survey<\/a> submitted to the National Human Rights Commission found that 92% of 900 trans people interviewed were \u201chighly deprived of the right to participate in any form of economic activities\u201d. About 96% said they were denied employment or faced stigma forcing them to leave work shortly after they were employed. Denial of most employment and livelihood opportunities has relegated<\/a> them to sex work and panhandling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hijra women\u2019s work often requires them to spend long hours exposed to the elements. But as summers grow longer and hotter, and heat spills into dry months, their work becomes increasingly untenable. This year, El Ni\u00f1o has been associated with below-normal rainfall in India, prolonging heat. \u201cWhen El Ni\u00f1o delays the monsoon or makes rainfall erratic and deficient, the relief it normally provides from extreme heat is weakened or postponed,\u201d says Moetasim Ashfaq, a computational Earth system scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US. \u201cIf the rainfall deficit persists, dry and hot extremes may persist along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialogue Earth spoke to 26 Hijra women across Indian cities including Delhi, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Chennai, and learnt that rising heat is directly impacting their livelihood, safety and health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For trans women already pushed to the margins of employment, housing and healthcare, heat can have cascading effects. It reduces their ability to work outdoors, pushing some towards riskier forms of work; makes medical interventions like hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery harder to tolerate and recover from, and leaves those in poorly ventilated homes with little relief from extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"woman<\/div>
Fiza rests in the shade of a tree, her face pale after several hours working in the sun \u2013 a sign of heat exhaustion (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"blue<\/div>
Her sari is made of a thick, synthetic material that makes the heat harder to deal with (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hijra women\u2019s heavy, embellished outfits make the heat harder to endure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the day, the high temperatures often leave Fiza with pounding headaches, dizzy spells and, at times, diarrhoea. \u201cThere are days when my blood pressure drops and I feel like I\u2019m going to collapse,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if I don\u2019t stand at the [traffic] signal, I don\u2019t earn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is transforming not just livelihoods, but the intimate, social and economic transitions that shape trans women\u2019s lives, experts told Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dangerous trade-off<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never wanted this to become my full-time work,\u201d says 23-year-old sex worker Leena*. Like Fiza, she used to offer blessings at a traffic light. But increasing heat forced her to leave the intersection earlier each day, impacting her income. For the past two years, Leena has been doing sex work full time, earning most of her income after dark from strangers she meets at a cruising spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Leena* has been doing sex work full time for the past two years. She says finding clients is not difficult. \u201cSome men come because they have a fetish for trans women. Others come because \u2018real women\u2019 charge more\u201d (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a little after 11 pm, and Leena stands beneath a flyover. The capital\u2019s daytime traffic has given way to a handful of vehicles and men who linger longer than they need to. She knows which glances to return and which to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These nights are unpredictable and often violent, but they spare Leena the relentless heat of the day. \u201cOf course it\u2019s risky,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re meeting random men. Men are risky in general, aren\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On her phone, she scrolls through a gallery of images until she stops at one of herself, her clothes soaked in blood. A deep gash runs from her upper lip down towards her groin. \u201cI was almost unconscious,\u201d she says, tracing the faint scar on her face, visible beneath a layer of cakey foundation. \u201cMy trans sisters found me and took me to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou never know what\u2019s going on inside a client\u2019s mind. Sometimes they take us to hotels not just for sex, but to beat us,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe they think it\u2019s easier to do this to us because we\u2019re trans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"two<\/div>
Working alone at a cruising spot is always risky. Leena says it is her fellow trans sisters in the area who come to her aid when things go wrong (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sex work occupies a legal grey zone<\/a> in India. While selling sexual services is not in itself illegal, soliciting in public places, brothel-keeping and living off income from sex work are criminalised. This leaves sex workers vulnerable to extortion and police harassment while being offered limited protection when they experience violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, India\u2019s rape law does not adequately recognise sexual violence against transgender survivors, with weaker legal protections and fewer avenues for recourse. Trans women engaged in sex work also face a disproportionately high burden<\/a> of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stigma, misgendering and discrimination in hospitals<\/a> can also limit their access to timely healthcare, reducing access to HIV testing, treatment and other healthcare services, even when they need them. Some Hijra women have joined initiatives that bring HIV awareness and prevention information to truckers and other groups that sexually engage with trans sex workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"colourful<\/div>
In some Indian cities, sex work concentrates around larger transport hubs, bringing women into contact with clients such as truck drivers, and others just passing through (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"people<\/div>
Rajni* (far right), a trans sex worker, is involved with a philanthropic foundation that works with truck drivers. During her time off, she goes around explaining sexual health and safer sex practices (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Transitioning through heat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fiza started hormone therapy earlier this year. Although this was an important milestone for her, the heat has only become harder to bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think when I take hormone medicines it makes me feel hotter. Not hotter as a woman, hotter in the sun,\u201d she says, laughing. On the days she can\u2019t access medicines from the government pharmacy, she doesn\u2019t experience the heat in quite the same way, she notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Leena ties her hair back before applying makeup for a night of work. Like Fiza, she has not yet undergone any surgery, but takes hormone therapy medication to maintain a feminine appearance (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While research on heat tolerance among trans people remains limited, a 2026 study<\/a> published in Communications Medicine found that trans women undergoing hormone therapy became more sensitive to temperature changes. In a 2024 ethnographic study<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro, three trans women repeatedly described changes in how they experienced heat after transitioning. \u201cI find that I sweat much more [now] than before my transition,\u201d one was quoted as saying. \u201cThe hormones seem to increase body heat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohini* works alongside Fiza. The 22-year-old underwent gender-affirming surgery last summer, in which surgeons constructed external female genitalia. She says recovering from the procedure has made working through the heat even harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy body doesn\u2019t work the way it used to,\u201d Mohini says. \u201cEarlier, I could keep going the whole day. Now it\u2019s as if I\u2019m functioning at half my strength. I get exhausted very quickly. I still feel like my body is recovering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"hands<\/div>
Leena rummages through her handbag, pulling out affordable knockoffs of makeup brands she likes. She plans to buy the real, expensive versions one day (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"makeup<\/div>
Leena grew up around a mother who never wore much makeup. It was her friend and housemate Pari* who taught her the basics, including how to do a proper winged eyeliner \u00a0(Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecovery [from gender affirming surgery] doesn\u2019t end when a patient leaves the operating theatre,\u201d says Charu Dutt Arora, a consultant physician who works with transgender communities. \u201cFor many people, it takes months before the body regains its strength and adjusts to the changes of medical transition,\u201d explains Arora, who is also head of home healthcare services provider AmeriHealth. \u201cWhen that recovery coincides with prolonged periods of extreme heat, especially for those who have no option but to work outdoors, it places an additional burden on the body and can make recovery much harder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the discomfort in heat, a change in Indian law means neither Mohini nor Fiza see transition as a choice that could have been postponed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, the latest amendment to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act entered into force. It made gender-affirming surgery the basis for obtaining legal recognition as male or female, replacing the earlier emphasis on self-identification. This has made trans people more vulnerable to police questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"woman<\/div>
Getting ready for work takes more than makeup. Both women sleep much of the day to look their best and have enough energy to make it through the night (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"two<\/div>
Pari\u2019s role in Leena\u2019s life is also about much more than makeup. When she was starting out in sex work, Pari shared her cruising spot and some of her clients, helping Leena find her feet (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout the surgery, I don\u2019t know if I would have survived as the person I was,\u201d Mohini says. \u201cI finally feel more complete. [But] what option did I really have?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiza says the heat is \u201csomething I\u2019ll somehow survive. But I don\u2019t want to keep living with the fear that anyone can question whether I\u2019m really a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safety over health<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last month, a Hijra woman from Fiza\u2019s gharana<\/em> \u2013 the traditional guru-disciple kinship system within the community \u2013 was blessing shoppers at one of the city\u2019s busiest markets when a passerby handed her a INR 500 (USD 5.30) note. Moments later, several police officers stopped her, accusing her of coercing the man into paying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe kept asking them to check the CCTV footage,\u201d Fiza says. \u201cBut they wouldn\u2019t listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Fiza, officers took the woman to the police station, stripped her naked to verify her gender and, after discovering she hadn\u2019t undergone surgery, beat her through the night while accusing her of impersonating a woman to extort money. She was released the following morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis happens to us all the time,\u201d Fiza says. \u201cThe consequences are worse when they know you haven\u2019t undergone surgery. They feel they can do anything to you. If you\u2019ve had the surgery, they\u2019ll often just take some money and let you go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"person<\/div>
For Hijra women, police violence is not new, but recent changes to the legal status of trans people in India have made them more vulnerable. \u201cThe consequences are worse when they know you haven\u2019t undergone surgery,\u201d says Fiza (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Harshit Anand, a lawyer working on transgender rights cases, says the amended law does not authorise police to demand identity certificates during street encounters. Nor does it make it an offence to be transgender without one or to not have undergone surgery. But by tying legal recognition to medical transition, the amendment fundamentally changes how trans identities are verified in practice, he notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarlier, a transgender person\u2019s identity rested on self-identification. Now, the state\u2019s certification has become the ultimate proof of who you are,\u201d Anand says. \u201cThat creates a regime of suspicion. Even where the law doesn\u2019t expressly require someone to produce a certificate, its absence can become a pretext for increased surveillance, harassment and police intrusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Fiza would rather deal with the heat than the police. \u201cNow that the law has changed, I don\u2019t want to delay my medical transition any more,\u201d she says (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For Fiza, her gharana sister\u2019s traumatic encounter with the police has made her decision to transition urgent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, she signed up for the mandatory psychological assessment that precedes gender-affirming surgery. \u201cI know the surgery will make life harder in this heat,\u201d she says. \u201cBut living without it feels even more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silicone, foundation and heat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery passing summer, I feel like I\u2019m becoming less of the woman I\u2019m fighting so hard to become,\u201d says 26-year-old Doll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than the dizziness or exhaustion, she worries about what long hours under the sun are doing to her appearance. Her complexion has darkened, meaning the foundation she wears no longer matches her skin tone, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m losing my beauty every day,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
For many Hijra women, looking beautiful is a complex interplay of factors, essential not only for work but also for their sense of identity. \u201cAt times, I think this beauty can easily turn out to be a curse,\u201d says Leena (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Transgender people experience higher levels of body-related distress than cisgender populations, says Ahammed Fazariya, a psychologist and rights-based mental health practitioner. \u201cWhen someone has worked hard to affirm their gender, any change that makes them feel they\u2019re moving away from how they see themselves can be deeply distressing, even when those changes are driven by environmental factors such as heat,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple trans women who spoke to Dialogue Earth described achieving their \u201cdream body\u201d as a deeply significant milestone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is crucial not to reduce these experiences to \u2018body image concerns\u2019 alone,\u201d Fazariya says. \u201cThey are shaped by the intersections of gender dysphoria, minority stress, social dysphoria and structural inequities, and are better understood as responses to chronic discrimination than as something inherent to transgender bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repeated marginalisation, he adds, can shape how trans people experience and inhabit their bodies. \u201cHence the question is not simply whether transgender people like or dislike their appearance, but whether they are able to inhabit their bodies with dignity and recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Having finished applying her makeup, Leena checks her appearance in her phone camera. Perfecting her look gives her the confidence to step into a night that can otherwise feel daunting (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Home and belonging<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Leena, leaving the traffic signal and taking on sex work also meant leaving her gharana. The gharana assigns where they can beg in exchange for a fixed share of their monthly earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her guru, a Hindu from a dominant caste who she had been living with, disapproved of sex work, considering it degrading. When she discovered that Leena had begun meeting clients, she asked her to move out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Leena was asked to leave her gharana due to disapproval of her line of work. After much difficulty, she finally found a cramped room to rent, which she shares with her best friend Pari (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Leaving also meant entering one of the city\u2019s most exclusionary markets: housing. Although Leena could now afford to pay between INR 8,000-9,000 (USD 85-95) a month in rent, finding a landlord willing to rent to a trans woman proved difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her experience reflects a broader pattern<\/a> of widespread housing discrimination against trans people, who are often denied rental accommodation outright, charged higher rents or pushed into overcrowded settlements with inadequate access to water, sanitation and ventilation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leena now shares a modest room in one of Delhi\u2019s dense inner-city neighbourhoods with her best friend Pari*. The rented room opens into a tight lane and traps the day\u2019s heat long after sunset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes the room feels hotter than outside,\u201d says Pari, who is also a trans woman. The kitchen and bedroom occupy the same space, so cooking only makes the room more stifling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"two<\/div>
Despite the difficult living conditions, Leena and Pari are as close as family (Image: Gorkey Patwal<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The heat, they say, also finds its way into everyday life. Small disagreements quickly turn into arguments. Still, leaving has never been part of the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s my closest friend. If we don\u2019t hold on to each other, who will?\u201d Pari says. \u201cWe don\u2019t have families of our own to fall back on. Neither can we reproduce our own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*The women\u2019s names have been changed to protect their identities.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a traditional trans and intersex community pushed to the margins of employment, housing and healthcare, heat can have cascading effects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":60153024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[761],"tags":[20000253,50041595,50040749],"country":[20000111],"class_list":["post-60152867","photo_story","type-photo_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-gender","tag-global-heating","tag-livelihoods","country-india"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFor India\u2019s Hijra women, rising heat comes with dangerous trade-offs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For a traditional trans and intersex community pushed to the margins of employment, housing and healthcare, heat can have cascading effects\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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