51 Knowledge Cultures 6(1), 2018 pp. 51–61, ISSN 2327-5731, eISSN 2375-6527 doi:10.22381/KC6120185 EDUCATION FOR THE HIJRAS: TRANSGENDER PERSONS OF INDIA ROMI JAIN r.jain17@vikes.csuohio.edu Cleveland State University ABSTRACT. Though revered for their miraculous powers, hijras or transgender people are a marginalized community in India. They earn their livelihood primarily by dancing on the occasions of weddings and births, while lately they have been known to resort to prostitution and begging as well. Recognizing that non-recognition of the gender identity of transgender people is a violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, the Indian Supreme Court classified them as belonging to a ‘third’ gender in April 2014 and directed the central and the state governments to provide them with reservations in educational institutions by considering them as ‘socially and educationally backward classes of citizens’. Further, India’s Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 provides for inclusive education for transgender students. Against this background, this article critically examines the educational scenario for transgender students in India in light of the inclusive education model and offers recommendations for a coherent approach. Keywords: hijras; transgender students; inclusive education; gender equity; third gender; Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 Introduction The term transgender (TG) is an ‘umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to their biological sex’ (SC Judgment, 2014), which includes emasculated or castrated men, non-emasculated men, and inter-sexed persons or hermaphrodites. Numbering around 490,000 in India, they are commonly known as hijras who are ‘biological males who reject their “masculine” identity in due course of time to identify either as women, or “not-men”, or “in-between man and woman”, or “neither man nor woman’” (SC Judgment, 2014, pp. 47–48). On its part, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 (TPR Bill, 2016) defines a transgender person as one who is ‘neither wholly female nor wholly male; or a combination of female or male; or neither female nor male; and whose sense of gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at the time of birth, and includes trans-men and