Lives of Gender Incongruent Community: An Indian Subset Chants “All is Well”

• Main Authors: Anirban Majumder, Sudip Chatterjee, Soumyabrata Roy Chaudhuri, Soma Chakraborty
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2020-01-01
• Series: Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism
• Subjects: gender incongruence; hijra; india; kuppuswamy's socioeconomic status scale; transgender persons
• Online Access: http://www.ijem.in/article.asp?issn=2230-8210;year=2020;volume=24;issue=6;spage=525;epage=531;aulast=Majumder

Context: Gender incongruent individuals are exposed to unique stressors as a result of their minority social position. Poor social support has a further adverse impact on the lives and wellbeing of gender incongruent individuals. There is a paucity of scientific data from India on the socioeconomic status (SES) of gender incongruent community. Aims: Aim of the study is to understand and estimate the social support, wellbeing, and SES of gender incongruent individuals in Eastern India. Subjects and Methods: Data of 120 gender incongruent patients from the endocrinology outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in eastern India were collected. We looked at demographic characteristics, social support, underlying psychiatric comorbidities, and SES. SES was calculated by the Kuppuswamy's socioeconomic status (KSS) scale based on occupation, education, and income. Statistical Analysis Used: Microsoft Word and Excel were used to generate tables. Results: Most of the gender incongruent individuals were transfeminine. Almost half of them had no history of addiction. Most of them had good support from family and friends and very few (only 3%) had mental health problems. Calculation by KSS scale showed most of the study population lay in the upper middle or lower middle socioeconomic class. Conclusions: Strong support from friends and family appears a key factor for protection against psychiatric comorbidities and an all-round impact on the lives and wellbeing of the study population.