School Experiences of Transgender: The Interaction of Gender and Residential Status

  • Ratnadeep Seal
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  • Ratnadeep Seal

    Ph.D. Scholar at Department of Sociology, Assam University, India.

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Abstract

This paper aims to explore the various disruptive experiences of transgenders with their peer groups, schoolmates, teachers, and other people in the school. The term ‘transgender’ in the study refers to ‘hijra’ in Indian society. The present study is an empirical study in which family experiences of transgenders were extracted by using an interview schedule. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many transgender people have left the city and gone to some unknown place. Therefore, an accidental sample from the transgender people available with NGOs or otherwise was taken, comprising 80 respondents. The data collected were analysed by using the tabulation method. The findings revealed that transgender students are bullied and harassed at school because of their dressing sense and hairstyle. Many transgender students do not want to participate in any outdoor games because of the fear of harassment and shame associated with their gender identity, and the rest who want to participate are discouraged by school authorities. Classmates avoided seats near to them and passed transphobic comments. In the school, both teachers and students refer to transgender students using the wrong pronouns, and they are subjected to gender suggestive abuse. Transgender students have a lack of freedom to express their choice to make friends, and they have to face more difficulties when rumours are spread that coming in contact with transgender would make people sick. They are not able to dress according to their expressed gender. Rather they dress either to meet societal expectations or due to the fear of punishment. Transgender students have a right to access toilets that match their affirmed gender, but the study reveals that there are no separate toilet facilities for transgender students, and therefore they have to use male toilets where they are predisposed to sexual assault and harassment. The findings help to make fellow students, teachers, and other people in the school aware of transgender issues and provide better knowledge for framing norms to make schools inclusive for transgender students.

Type

Research Paper

Information

International Journal of Law Management and Humanities, Volume 5, Issue 1, Page 2005 - 2013

DOI: https://doij.org/10.10000/IJLMH.112721

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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits remixing, adapting, and building upon the work for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.

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