It's a long history of hijras. Some of them are intersex, at times deified and followed around for life advice and blessings, most of them are ostracized and outcast as having bad karma. Some of them are transwomen, some of them are castrated (but not as practiced today as before I think).

During the Muslim Mughal dynasty ruling of much of Hindustan or India, hijras were castrated by law I think and served in harems. Similar to castration of slaves in Arab slave trade in order to prevent offspring for instance. Some became advisors during the dynasty or soldiers.

People that become hijras come from poor families or working class families and are often shunned by their families. They become sex workers and suffer additional stigmas to it. There is also the issue of caste system which still impacts people in India, so some of the hijras from so called lower caste have limited choices and opportunities.

Some people worship and/or seek their advice because they see their suffering as something extraordinary. It's kind of fucked up on many levels.

Since castration is looked upon as stopping all desire hijras are considered blessed with certain powers such as bestowing couples with fertility.

During colonial British rule, they were demonized as sodomites, prostitutes and child kidnappers, and stripped of inheritance rights.

In Hinduism, there is a concept of third gender which usually includes gender non conforming individuals.

The god Shiva is sometimes portrayed as half male, half female or in fusion with the creative feminine principle as far as I understand or represents balance of power in the cycle of creation and destruction. Mind you, Shiva is a god of destruction. So there is sort of a reverence for gender non conforming individuals but even being idolized brings its own share of issues let alone being demonized.

Overall, it's complicated. And they're heavily ostracized today even though some gurus supposedly try to help them but some just exploit them.

"On 15 April 2014, in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India ruled that transgender people should be treated as a third category of gender and as a socially and economically “backward” class entitled to proportional access and representation in education and jobs." source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/hijra/

Best you talk to a couple of Indians tho. I am no expert nor am i Indian. It's interesting tho since some of it is similar to the pagan worship of my ancestors (Ilyrians, Slavs) before Christianity came over, and Hinduism is somewhat revered by some in my neck of the woods because of it.