IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v5y2021i2p31-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Aspirations and Challenges of LGBTQIA+ Community in India

Author

Listed:
  • Dr. Saundarya Rajesh

    (Founder & President, AVTAR Group)

  • Ms. Anju Rakesh

    (Assistant Vice President – Research & Solutions, Avtar)

  • Ms. Nisha Chandran

    (Assistant Vice President – Consulting & Solutions, Avtar)

  • Dr. Divya Kumar

    (Associate Manager – Research, Avtar)

Abstract

Historically, the social acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community has been very low across the globe. In India the scenario was no different though the landscape began shifting post the progressive judgement rendered by the Supreme Court of India, in 2018, decriminalizing homosexuality. The introduction of the third gender as a part of recognised gender spectrum in 2014 and the right to change legal gender in 2019 were other progressive measures in this direction. Despite the mandate the societal awareness and acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community continues to be a challenge in the Indian socio cultural milieu. Against this backdrop, a research study was undertaken to understand the aspirations of, and challenges faced by members of the community in India, today. A qualitative survey questionnaire with questions including when they developed self-awareness of their identity, how their experience of acceptance and inclusion was and how they embarked on their pursuit of aspirations, was used. The research sample consisted of 31 respondents who identified themselves as part of the LGBTQIA+ Community. From a self-awareness standpoint, 70% respondents said they accepted their own identity only after the age of 20. 48% of respondents reported facing mental health challenges because of a lack of acceptance. The paper also includes a discussion on the measures that individuals, organizations and institutions can undertake to be more inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Suggested Citation

  • Dr. Saundarya Rajesh & Ms. Anju Rakesh & Ms. Nisha Chandran & Dr. Divya Kumar, 2021. "Aspirations and Challenges of LGBTQIA+ Community in India," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 5(2), pages 31-37, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:5:y:2021:i:2:p:31-37
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/Digital-Library/volume-5-issue-2/31-37.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/virtual-library/papers/aspirations-and-challenges-of-lgbtqia-community-in-india/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marcus Noland, 2005. "Popular Attitudes, Globalization and Risk," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 199-229, August.
    2. Niclas Berggren & Mikael Elinder, 2012. "Is tolerance good or bad for growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 283-308, January.
    3. Meyer, I.H., 2003. "Prejudice as stress: Conceptual and measurement problems," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(2), pages 262-265.
    4. Gunseli Berik & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers & Stephanie Seguino, 2009. "Feminist Economics of Inequality, Development, and Growth," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 1-33.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Badgett, M.V. Lee & Waaldijk, Kees & Rodgers, Yana van der Meulen, 2019. "The relationship between LGBT inclusion and economic development: Macro-level evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 1-14.
    2. Brahma, Sanjukta & Gavriilidis, Konstantinos & Kallinterakis, Vasileios & Verousis, Thanos & Zhang, Mengyu, 2023. "LGBTQ and finance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Niclas Berggren & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 177-207, May.
    4. Kia, Hannah & MacKinnon, Kinnon Ross & Abramovich, Alex & Bonato, Sarah, 2021. "Peer support as a protective factor against suicide in trans populations: A scoping review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    5. Mariusz Kaszubowski & Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz, 2014. "Salary and reservation wage gender gaps in Polish academia," GUT FME Working Paper Series A 19, Faculty of Management and Economics, Gdansk University of Technology.
    6. Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2016. "Tolerance in the United States: Does economic freedom transform racial, religious, political and sexual attitudes?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 53-70.
    7. Khayria Karoui & Rochdi Feki, 2018. "The Effect of Gender Inequality on Economic Development: Case of African Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(1), pages 294-300, March.
    8. Viola von Berlepsch & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Neil Lee, 2019. "A woman’s touch? Female migration and economic development in the United States," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(1), pages 131-145, January.
    9. Eckhard Hein, 2020. "Gender Issues in Kaleckian Distribution and Growth Models: On the Macroeconomics of the Gender Wage Gap," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 640-664, October.
    10. Eneriko Mbofani, 2024. "Political Tolerance Challenges and Strategies in Multiparty Societies’ in Sadc: The Case of Zimbabwe (2017-2023)," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(10), pages 1368-1393, October.
    11. Johansson, Alva & Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2022. "Intolerance predicts climate skepticism," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    12. Billy A Caceres & Abraham Brody & Deborah Chyun, 2016. "Recommendations for cardiovascular disease research with lesbian, gay and bisexual adults," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(23-24), pages 3728-3742, December.
    13. Meyer, Ilan H. & Schwartz, Sharon & Frost, David M., 2008. "Social patterning of stress and coping: Does disadvantaged social statuses confer more stress and fewer coping resources?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 368-379, August.
    14. Sara L Tamers & Cassandra Okechukwu & Alex A Bohl & Alice Guéguen & Marcel Goldberg & Marie Zins, 2014. "The Impact of Stressful Life Events on Excessive Alcohol Consumption in the French Population: Findings from the GAZEL Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, January.
    15. Eva Fodor & Daniel Horn, 2015. "“Economic development” and gender equality: explaining variations in the gender poverty gap after socialism," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1519, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    16. Marilyn Power, 2013. "A social provisioning approach to gender and economic life," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 1, pages 7-17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2015. "Globalization and the transmission of social values: The case of tolerance," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 371-389.
    18. Nidhiya Menon & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2010. "Gender Differences in Socioeconomic Status and Health: Evidence from the 2008 Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey," Working Papers 18, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    19. Morey, Brittany N. & Gee, Gilbert C. & Muennig, Peter & Hatzenbuehler, Mark L., 2018. "Community-level prejudice and mortality among immigrant groups," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 56-66.
    20. Chi Jin & Bo Li & Zhaoying Ye & Pengcheng Xiang, 2021. "Identifying the Non-Traditional Safety Risk Paths of Employees from Chinese International Construction Companies in Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-19, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:5:y:2021:i:2:p:31-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Pawan Verma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.