Over 28,000 Pakistanis Have Applied to Change Their Gender Since 2018

More than 28,000 citizens applied to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to have their genders officially changed over the last three years.

The Senate was recently informed that 16,530 male applicants had asked the regulator to document them as females, while thousands of women had applied to be registered as males, according to a national daily.

Minister of Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad answered a question by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed and said that since July 2018, 12,154 female applicants had appealed to the NADRA to register them as males.

The senator also enquired about the number of citizens who had applied for gender changes over the last three years and was told by NADRA’s officials that while it is not obligated to issue gender change certificates, the genders of the applicants are sporadically changed on the records for medical reasons. They added that Khwaja Saras (eunuchs) are typically registered as either males or females.

Overall, NADRA has processed 28,723 cases of gender changes in the last three years. During this period, nine citizens had applied to change their gender from male to eunuch, and 21 others, who were previously registered as eunuchs, had requested to be registered as males. Additionally, nine applicants had requested to be officially recognized as females instead of eunuchs.