An Analysis of Transgender Empowerment through Self Help Groups (SHGs) with respect to Tamil Nadu
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Date
2022
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DRPCAU, PUSA
Abstract
Approximately 4.9 lakh persons are under transgender category in the country. They face discrimination in public places and normal people treat them as untouchable. So, they feel excluded from cultural, economical, social, and political life. They are facing challenges in their life and least empowered as compared to other genders. As the trans people are living in backwardness, Tamil Nadu state has established the first transgender social welfare board for upliftment of overall status of transgenders. The welfare society of the state encourages transgenders to engage themselves in the activities of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in order to avoid the illegal work. Therefore, the present study aims to find out the status of transgenders through SHGs. The study has been undertaken with the objectives of estimating empowerment index, livelihood security and constraints faced by transgenders. For the present study, four districts were selected purposively from the state based on highest number of SHGs and from each districts cluster of SHGs were identified in order to take 20 members from each district. Finally, 80 members and 80 non-members were identified from the four districts for data collection. The primary data was collected with the help of pre-tested well structured schedule. The collected data was compiled,
tabulated and analysed by using various tools like; construction of empowerment index, livelihood security index and Likert scale. The result of the study revealed that majority of the transgender population lives with guru/jamaat leader. Among members, maximum number of respondents were engaged in business-related activities (49%), followed by livestock & poultry rearing (26%), wage labour (10%) and cottage industry (9%). A major proportion of non-members (69%) are involved in business and labour work. One of the worst things is that 29 per cent trans people are indulge in begging activity. The result of empowerment index indicates that the index score for members is 0.69 while for non-members it is 0.48. It means SHG members are more empowered than the non-members. Livelihood security index of member is 0.63 and for non-members, it is 0.48. It shows SHG members are more secure than non-members. Major problems faced by members of SHG were domestic work was neglected and inadequate budget provisions. The result regarding perception of non-members exhibits that they are thinking that the SHG is a worthy programme. Overall, the result indicates relatively high empowerment and livelihood security among members. Therefore, it is suggested to non-members to join the SHGs in order to upgrade their social and economic status which ultimately leads to high livelihood security among them. Along with livelihood security, participation in SHGs empowering the transgender in terms of production, time, resource and income decisions. Thus, Self Help Groups (SHGs) act as an elixir for entitlement of empowering Transgender in the state of Tamil Nadu.