'Aravanis' (eunuchs) in Tamil Nadu have decided to move the Madras high court to declare them as 'third gender'.

"With the growing number of problems and discrimination being faced by them, they need an independent identity and will move the high court soon," P Mohana, managing trustee, South India Aravanigal Rights and Rehabilitation Centre, said in Chennai on Thursday.

The aravanis are also demanding that the Centre should legalise sex, Mohana said.

They also want the right to education, right to employment, right to marriage, right to child adoption and voting rights.

Lamenting that these people were mainly engaged in begging and prostitution as a means of livelihood, Mohanna said SIARRC, a charitable trust, was registered in Tiruchirappalli in 2003 by a group of aravanis to fight for their rights.