Transgenderism in India: Insights From Current Census

Neethu Naik

Background- Gender is a human social system of differentiation by sex for roles, behaviours, characteristics, appearances, and identities. The third gender is a broad term used to describe those whose gender, gender identity, or gender expression is in some sense different from, their assigned birth sex (Choudhury, 2016). India has a very fascinating history on transgender population. The present study aims at portraying their demographic characteristics. First time ever in the 2011 census India enumerated transgender population. Therefore, this study has employed 2011 census data. Furthermore, a series of quantile maps have been generated to present the results. The findings reveal that around 4.87 lakh people reported themselves as transgender. The distribution of a transgender population is high in the major state of India i.e. Uttar Pradesh (28.18%). There should be strong and perfectly running programs to civilize their lives and free them from societal stigmas and discrimination.

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