Badhai has historically functioned as a genuine, if precarious, economic and social institution for hijra communities, whose traditional livelihood has centred substantially on the payments received for this ceremonial blessing role alongside other traditional occupations, even as hijra communities have simultaneously faced, across much of modern South Asian history, significant social stigma, marginalisation and, in specific historical periods including under British colonial law, direct legal persecution that badhai's continued ritual demand did not straightforwardly offset.
India's Supreme Court formally recognised a third gender legal category in 2014, a landmark recognition that has begun to shift, though by no means fully resolved, the legal and social standing of hijra communities within Indian society, and badhai continues to be performed today as a living religious and social practice even as younger generations of hijra activists and community members increasingly also pursue formal education, employment and political representation alongside, rather than as a replacement for, the traditional ceremonial role. The atlas records badhai as the hijra community's own stated religious practice and claim of spiritual authority, consistent with treating a living tradition's self understanding as the primary source for describing it.