Eunuchs issue ID cards after "fakes" take away trade

AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) - Indian eunuchs have started issuing their own photo-identity cards in a battle for business with "fake" transsexuals who have muscled in on their begging operations.

Eunuchs regularly barge uninvited as "auspicious" visitors to Indian weddings and to bless the births of children and leave only after collecting money to spare the embarrassment of their hosts.

Lured by the money-making prospects, eunuchs say many men are dressing up as women and are involved in small-time crime and use more aggressive tactics to collect cash -- prompting the issue of cards for "genuine" eunuchs.

The newcomers demand up to 2,000 rupees for an occasion and refuse to be deterred by lesser amounts, said Sanju Masi, a eunuch operating in Ahmedabad in India's western Gujarat state.

"Before eunuchs were treated with kid gloves but the fake ones won't go away with just 10 rupees," he said. "The problem has intensified and they abuse people if they don't pay them."

Sonia Ajmeri, a eunuch leader who last year ran for the state assembly on an independent ticket to represent the estimated 40,000 eunuchs in Gujarat, told AFP the "fake eunuchs" were a big problem and growing.

"Some male partners of eunuchs dress up and go about begging and taking part in thefts and robberies," he said, adding the card scheme has been running for about a year in Ahmedabad.

There were also about 300 "fake eunuchs" operating in another city in Gujarat, Surat, according to a report Tuesday, where a similar card scheme has been introduced amid claims the eunuchs' reputations were being damaged.

"If a person gives us money out of joy, we accept it, otherwise we bless him and leave. But the fake eunuchs coax people and ultimately harass them," one told The Indian Express newspaper.

India's estimated one million eunuchs are more likely to be shunned and are ridiculed in Indian movies.

They struggle to get jobs, are often seen begging at traffic junctions in major cities and depend on the sex trade to make a living. The embarrassment factor of being visited by a eunuch has also seen them employed by debt collecting agencies.

Not all are emasculated, some citing the cost of the operation, while others use a crude tribal ritual involving tying their testicles with the strands of a horse's tail for 24 hours and then cutting them off.