An Empirical Study on Social and Legal Opportunities among Transgender in Vellore district of Tamilnadu, India
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Transgender people face ongoing social and legal disadvantage, such as lack of social acceptance, legal assistance, civic engagement, and political involvement. The present study aimed to investigate the social and legal opportunities of the transgender in Vellore district, Tamilnadu with six dimensions namely marital life status, access to legal aid, social inclusion, civic participation, political advocacy and media awareness. The quantitative descriptive research design was used with a sample of 120 transgender people who were chosen by snowball sampling. Primary data was collected by the use of a self-structured interview schedule. Cronbach's alpha (α = 0.808) was used to determine the reliability of the instrument, which showed good internal consistency. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and one sample t-test. The findings revealed the married transgender respondents (51.7%) and the majority of the respondents were living in town areas (68.3%). The one-sample t-test showed statistically significant differences (p < .05) across all six dimensions: marital life status (t = 27.486, mean difference = 2.042), access to legal aid (t = 20.811, mean difference = 2.008), social inclusion (t = 21.001, mean difference = 2.033), civic participation (t = 17.975, mean difference = 1.800), political advocacy (t = 23.077, mean difference = 1.900) and media awareness (t = 20.134, mean difference = 2.208). The mean difference for media awareness was the highest of the six dimensions and the lowest was for civic participation. The results thus suggest differences in the dimensions of social and legal opportunities measured, notably in the case of civic participation and political advocacy. The study provides district-level empirical information of social and legal opportunities available to transgender people in Vellore District. The results indicate that there is a need to strengthen legal aid services, promote social inclusion, facilitate civic and political participation, strengthen inclusive governance and expand public awareness and community-based social work interventions. The limitations are being a cross-sectional study, the sample size (120), study restricted only to Vellore District, and the data was self-reported and the snowball sampling technique was used which may not be generalizable. The study shows that enhancing institutional support and inclusive social and legal channels are crucial to equality, dignity, participation and sustainable empowerment of transgender people.
Authors: Jintha J., Selvam T.
Institutions: Thiruvalluvar University, Sacred Heart College (Autonomous)
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7224099588