Story Description: The Hijras or eunuchs are a transgender community in India. Hijras are born male, but identify as females and some of them choose to undergo a painful castration in order to become ‘nirvana’ or a complete female. Some people in society call them the third gender and most of them are unaccepted in Hindu society or at the most forcibly accepted. Abandoned by their parents and ignored by the Government they are left with very little option. Thus, many Hijras turn to prostitution as their only means of income.

Alisha, a hijra or transgender sex worker, dresses up as she begins another day at a brothel in Mumbai’s red-light district of Kamathipura.