---
title: "India Census Offers Three Gender Options"
description: "India’s 2011 national census, which goes into the field this week, includes not just the usual two gender categories, but for the first time a third one, called “other.”"
date: "2011-02-07"
authors:
  - name: "D’Vera Cohn"
    job_title: "Former Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/dvera-cohn/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2011/02/07/india-census-offers-three-gender-options/"
categories:
  - "Gender"
  - "Gender & LGBTQ"
---

# India Census Offers Three Gender Options

India’s 2011 national census, which goes into the field this week, includes [not just the usual two gender categories, but for the first time a third one, called “other](http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-05/ahmedabad/28366805_1_census-operations-third-gender-manish-bharadwaj).” The [national census in Nepal](http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iUjXoBA5dPXY8etqO2acLBOMWBGw?docId=CNG.549d9012fb77ecdc111aaffaea9ad062.371&hl=en), to be conducted in May, also will include three gender options, prompted by a ruling by that nation’s highest court ordering greater protections for the rights of transgender, gay and lesbian and bisexual people.

As this posting from the Population Reference Bureau explains, [the “third sex” is not a recent concept in many parts of the world](http://prbblog.org/index.php/2011/01/21/india-census-third-sex/), although the change on the census form has generated many stories in the Indian press.

The U.S. census form, [as shown here](http://www.census.gov/2010census/about/interactive-form.php), offers the standard two options, male and female.