Report: Mandar Phanse

Programme: Special Correspondent

Telecast: Saturday (Aug 2) at 9:30 pm Thursday (Aug 7) at 4:30 pm Their are margins of our goody-goody society that we conveniently avoid treading. Margins that co-exist with us but are invisible. Zee News Special Correspondent Mandar Phanse tried to penetrate the high walls of one such society- the eunuchs of Maharashtra.
The eunuchs have a long tradition in India, yet they are regarded as an ambiguity. No Indian has not encountered them, but very few know anything about them. The ubiquitous eunuchs exist as a mystery.
The onus of spawning this conundrum, however, rests with us. On one hand, we consider their visiting weddings and births as a good luck charm. On the other, we are the ones who despise them for their sense of otherness. The society and no one else should be held responsible for the fearful speculation that surrounds the eunuchs and their world.

"What`s our fault? Is it a sin to be born as a eunuch? We just want to live a normal life," complains Radhika, a eunuch from Sonpur basti in Mumbai.
We couldn`t escape the pinch in her voice.
And we couldn`t help but pity this computer savvy graduate who just wanted to be treated as "normal".
But then eunuchs too are not free from all blame. These outcasts maintain a strong code of silence. They guard their existence with great ferocity.
It wasn`t easy to get them talking about their lives and their culture. But every little peep into their realm came as a revelation. The eunuchs have a well-defined hierarchy. They are divided into families which are headed by Gurus. Every eunuch is pledged to a guru and every guru defers to a Nayak.
All issues pertaining to the community looked into by a `Jaat Panchayat` (community panchayat) headed by the Nayak. So strong is the code that even the police does not interfere in the functioning of these Panchayats. More than their taut power structure what surprised us was the concept of marriage among eunuchs.
Marriage, as we learnt, isn`t a taboo word for them. What else, it`s mandatory for every eunuch to marry to be accepted in the community.
Eunuchs marry their deity Arwaan, said to be the son of Arjun and Nagkanya, every year in an elaborate ceremony.
These little details about their unfamiliar, semi-secret existence added to our sense of amazement. We were face to face with a different world with its own customs, rituals and protocols. A world sans any respect or recognition.
Minus any social acceptance the eunuchs merely exist. Living is a compulsion that has pushed them into the trade of survival. The butt of ridicule of the entire society they exist as buffoons, as theatre, as beggars and as prostitutes. In shady corners- selling their bodies. At weddings- raucously singing for alms. In trains- begging for survival. The society never gave them any better options.
Unless we start treating them with respect they won`t open up and would never come to the mainstream. And until that happens the boderline world of the eunuch would continue to be an enigma.