“May God give children of our kind to these merciless people”, members of the transgender community were cursing the murderers of Alisha and the hospital staff at her funeral, the first ever funeral of a transsexual woman that took place in public. What an irony.

Alisha, a transgender woman, was shot multiple times last week allegedly by a man she was in a relationship with. She was rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Peshawar but succumbed to her wounds after three days.

Unfortunately she couldn’t receive intensive medical attention, just because she was from a different community that has been ostracized, alienated and grossly neglected by our society. She belonged to that section of society which is destined to be “performers” at weddings, prostitutes and beggars for life.

That was the reason that despite her critical condition the medical staff kept asking Alisha and her colleagues if they only danced and how much did they charge for their “services”. Even the blood laboratory staff asked them if their blood was HIV positive or not. The hospital staff was not able to decide whether to keep her in a male or female ward. Attendees of the female patients objected to Alisha and her colleagues entering the female ward. They also chased and teased them, ridiculed them and were laughing at them when they were making efforts to save Alisha’s life.

It was the fifth reported case against transgender activists in KP province this year. According to members of the Trans Action, a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa based transgender forum, 45 transgender women have been killed in the province in the last two years. Situation in other provinces is no different.

The police and other law enforcement departments are bound to protect all citizens but unfortunately it is a bitter truth that despite being the most vulnerable community, transgenders have been left at the mercy of this ruthless society. On the contrary, According to members of Trans-Action, the police ask for bribes when they come out at night.

It’s natural to blame government for such issues and rightly so as it is the duty of government to provide equal opportunities and ensure safety to all its citizens but we, as a society have certain moral duties as well. We, as human beings have certain duties to our fellow human beings. But most of us do not even consider transgenders as our fellow human beings.

Even their parents and families do not treat them as their children but or a “curse”. Their parents are ashamed of referring to them as their children. Even when their families choose to accept them as humans and not a ‘curse’, they are ridiculed by society. This constant berating forces most of the transgenders to run away from home. Most of them consider their birth the single biggest regret in life.

The silver lining is that a non-government organization, Akhuwat has launched a special initiative with Fountain House for the transgenders of Pakistan named Khwaja Sira Rehabilitation Program which aims to uplift the financial structure of this community, and reintegrate them back into society. It allows every khwaja sira registered under its program to be given a monthly stipend and encourages them to participate in giving talks on stage and sharing their experiences with the rest of the community.

The Akhuwat Cloth Bank, another project started by Akhuwat, also employs khwaja siras for the distribution of packages to the needy. Khawaja Sira Society (KSS) founded by Naz Male Health society under the Global Fund Grant Round 9 in 2010, is another non-governmental organization in Pakistan. It is the biggest transgender community organization with 300,000 members, volunteers and associates across the country.

KSS is striving to ensure that transgender individuals have the same rights that their cisgender counterparts are entitled to. But such measures taken by non-profits can never match the impact that a national policy can have. So it is incumbent upon the government to open up schemes for the rehabilitation of the transsexuals and transgenders in our society.

Being the most marginalized community in Pakistan, it is no wonder that most of them don’t even think of studying at a college or university, and get a white collar job to live a respectable life. Our society teaches its members not to even look at the faces of these “mutants”. So unless we change our attitude towards them, they will continue to suffer.

The government needs to provide equal opportunities and protection to transgender community. Although in 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan officially recognized them as a third gender, allowing their third gender certification on their national ID and ability to vote in the election but they still face difficulties in registering as citizens of the country.

Government needs to allocate a certain percentage of quotas in jobs and educational institutions. Government should also raise public awareness regarding this issue. Lessons regarding equal treatment of transgender people should be included in the curricula at schools but first of all we need to accept them as our fellow human beings. Our acceptance alone, will help Pakistan’s persecuted transgender community survive the damage that has been inflicted on them.