The transgender community in Pakistan says the recent census does not accurately represent the number of trans people in the country.
The survey, carried out by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) earlier this year, found that there are just 10,418 transgender people—less than 0.005 per cent of the total population.
Activists say that many transgender people weren’t counted—or that they were misgendered by census officials.
Nighaian Kiyani told that no-one from the census team visited her house, saying that “it is a big joke that there are only 10,000 transgender people in Pakistan”.
The Tribune also reports that some people were rejected from the count if they did not have a national identity card.
Trans Action Pakistan posted to that the number was “not even close to the actual figures.
“Despite Lahore, Islamabad and Peshwar Highcourt orders the PBS have failed to create a separate column [for transgender people].
“For us the only positive thing is that we are part of the report and reflected for the first time in the census.”
According to the in the United States—globally, transgender women are estimated at 1 in every 30,000 people and transgender men at 1 in every 100,000.
However, the organisation notes that “data collection forms often do not provide ways for transgender, genderqueer, or other gender variant people to indicate their gender identity”.
Gary Gates from the Williams Institute in the US has previously told about the importance of accurately counting the transgender population.
“We see health disparities and socioeconomic disparities that are likely related to stigma and discrimination, so to understand those and try to figure out what the policy would be to try to remedy those disparities, we just have to have better data,” Gates said.
