‘Other Gender in India’: An Analysis of 2011 Census Data

Chaitali Mandal

Background: In spite of a lot of human rights protection given to the “other-gender” population worldwide, they still face significant occupational challenges around the world because of their unique gender identity. The stigmatisation and segregation from the society have left them to compromise with the employment opportunities available. Data and Methods: This paper uses the data on other-gender published by Census of India for the first time in 2011. We compare the level of literacy and work participation to the general population of India. Results: The study found that there is around 4.9 lakh other-gender population in the country. The data reveal that other-gender have lower levels of literacy and labour force participation compared with the general population. Conclusion: Our attempt is here to conceptualise the findings along with some discussion of the data limitations. Keywords: Other-gender, general population, literacy, work participation

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 Presented in Session 9. Marriage, Family, Households, & Unions; Gender, Race, & Ethnicity