Transgender Experience with Social Stigmatization, Violence and Discrimination: A Qualitative Study in Kashmir

Abstract

The rationale of this paper is to accentuate the socio economic conditions of transgender community in Jammu & Kashmir. The term Tran’s man refers to female-to-male (FtM) transgender people, and Tran’s woman refers to male-to-female (MtF) transgender people. Some transgender individuals experience their gender identity as incongruent with their anatomical sex and may seek some degree of sex reassignment surgery, take hormones or undergo other cosmetic procedures. Others may pursue gender expression (masculine or feminine) through external self-presentation and behavior. There is no Transgender welfare Board therefore the problems of the third gender remain unattended. They face harassment from multi-dimensional sources, from parents, teachers, peers, society and it includes each sphere of their lives. There is an immense need to address their problems in order to make them fully functional human beings by guaranteeing and safeguarding their rights. The Supreme Court of India recently decriminalized section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to outlaw the unfair violence and discrimination against transgender people. The paper argues that despite the legal acceptance of Section 377, the discrimination and social exclusion of transgender people continue in the Indian public sphere. The method of Interpretative Phenomenological Approach has been used to analyze the interviews of five transgender people from Jammu city. The findings suggest patterns and relationships within the data which are useful for understanding various ways in which transgender people negotiate and contemplate their lives outside the known social network they resort to. By analyzing the interpretations of selected transgender people, the study reveals that they bear the brunt of social and economic exclusion due to their gender identity on day-to-day basis.