Third Gender in Kashmir Region

Who exactly are these Third Gender people or Hijras? There is not one but a number of descriptions given by few scholars who have attempted in-depth studies on them. One of the beliefs is that they are castrated males and hermaphrodites. Reddy (2006) uses the term Hijra in her study and argues that hijras, as one knows, are men who desire to be feminine; they might be hermaphrodite by birth, or men who choose to castrate themselves or those who merely wear feminine attire. Today, some of them refer to themselves as belonging to the “third” gender.