Transgender (TG) people in India face a variety of issues and discrimination. This discrimination not only denies TG people equal access to key social goods, such as employment, health care, education and housing but it also marginalizes them in society and makes them one of the weaker sections who are at risk of becoming socially excluded. Talking about this pressing concern, Radhika Nair, a Bangalore based activist who works on gender equality says, " TG individuals may experience multiple forms of marginalization-such as racism, sexism, poverty or other factors – alongside homophobia or transphobia that negatively impact their mental health. This marginalization often excludes Transgender people from many support structures, often including their own families, leaving them with little access to services that many others take for granted such as medical care, justice and legal services and education. Furthermore marginalization and bias around sexual orientation and gender identity and expression regularly prevent Transgender people from accessing fundamental public services such as health care and housing and contributes to significant disparities." Marginalization of Transgender people often starts with the family into which they were born. "The familial marginalization of Transgender people hinders initial prevention and education efforts, encourages risk-taking behaviour that can lead to HIV infection and places obstacles in the way of receiving proper medical treatment and psychosocial support for Transgender youth already living with HIV/AIDS. Transgender persons face huge discrimination in terms of access to public places like restaurants, cinemas, shops, malls etc. Further, access to public toilets is also a serious problem that they face quite often. Even today there are no separate toilet facilities for transgender persons and they have to use male toilets where they are prone to sexual assault and harassment," explains Nair. Nair states that there is rampant harassment of Transgender People in the educational system. "The transgender community is a highly marginalized and vulnerable one and is seriously lagging behind on human development index mainly in the area of education," she reiterates. In her words, "Majority of this community is illiterate or less educated due to which they are not able to participate fully in social, cultural, political and economic activities. There are many factors responsible for the low level of education of this community but the main reasons are exclusion from family/society, poverty, social stigma and discrimination, insensitive attitude of teachers/staff, violence and sexual abuse. Actually educational institutions are very gendered places. Stigmatization of gender-nonconforming and transgender children and youth is amplified in the educational system, which actually mirrors the rest of society in terms of reinforcing strictly binary and patriarchal gender norms." Nair states that even today transgenders contend with discrimination in the workplace. There are also myriad problems facing Transgender people who are homeless. The main problem is a sheer lack of housing and services that meet their specific needs. "They are living on city streets because they were either thrown out of their homes for being queer, or ran away to escape an abusive situation. Transgenders are not allowed to choose with which gender they are more comfortable living in the shelter system. Abuse and harassment of Transgender homeless people is rampant in the shelter system. There has also been lack of any comprehensive plan for long term housing for people with AIDS," concludes Nair.
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