Under the Sun

Season 3, Episode 1

Episode Title: Eunuchs: India's Third Gender

Air Date: 1991-06-27

Overview:

Kiran was castrated four months ago. His best friend Harish yearns to be a woman but has a wife and two children. Shardabai is the Empress of the Eunuchs. She preserves the courtly traditions of the eunuchs who once guarded the Maharaja's hareems. But today most eunuchs end up in the brothels of Bombay. Eunuchs are both man and woman in one body and granted the power to bless and curse. They have all survived the trauma of gender identity. This film shows how the 'third gender' still has an accepted place in India today.