The Hindustani word hijra may alternately be romanized as hijira, hijda, hijada, hijara, hijrah and is pronounced Hindustani pronunciation. Nepal, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have all legally accepted the existence of a third gender, with India, Pakistan and Nepal including an option for them on passports and certain official documents. In India, the Supreme Court in April 2014 recognised hijras, transgender people, eunuchs, and intersex people as a 'third gender' in law. Hijras have successfully gained this recognition in Bangladesh and are eligible for priority in education and certain kinds of low paid jobs. Since the late 20th century, some hijra activists and non-government organizations have lobbied for official recognition of the hijra as a kind of 'third sex' or ' third gender', as neither man nor woman. Some hijras undergo an initiation rite into the hijra community called nirvaan, which involves the removal of the penis, scrotum and testicles. However, in general hijras have been born male, with only a few having been born with intersex variations. It has traditionally been translated into English as 'eunuch' or ' hermaphrodite', where 'the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition'. These communities have consisted over generations of those who are in abject poverty or who have been rejected by or fled their family of origin. Many hijras today live in well-defined and organised all-hijra communities, led by a guru. This encouraged anti-hijra sentiments throughout the Indian subcontinent, the legacies of which continued in the post-colonial era.

Starting in the 19th century, hijras were targeted by British colonial authorities who sought to eradicate them, criminalised under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (1860), and labelled as a criminal tribe in 1871. Hijras have a recorded history in the Indian subcontinent since antiquity, as suggested by the Kama Sutra. Hijras are officially recognised as a third gender in the Indian Subcontinent, being considered neither completely male nor female.

In Pakistan, they are known as khawaja sira, the equivalent of transgender in the Urdu language. Also known as aravani, aruvani, and jogappa, the hijra community in India prefer to call themselves ' kinnar', referring to the mythological beings that excel at song and dance. In the Indian subcontinent, hijra are eunuchs, intersex people, or transgender people who live in communities that follow a kinship system known as guru-chela system.

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