A Study on Family and Social Acceptance of the Third Gender Community

The freedom to choose one's gender identity is essential to living a decent life for humans, protected by Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Indian Constitution. Humans identify mostly as male and female gender. People with other gender identities also exist. However, for centuries, one group of people has been neglected in almost every part of the world – the Third Gender. As Third gender community face discrimination in every aspects of their life such as in family, educational institutes, society, healthcare, work and their rights. The present study is focused to find out the family and social acceptance of the third gender community of Patiala district of Punjab. A descriptive survey method was adopted in this study. The researcher used self-prepared structured questionnaire for the present study. The researcher selected 40 third gender individauls from 2 deras out of total 6 deras of Patiala district. The data was statistically analyzed using the percentage analysis technique. The study results indicate minimal family acceptance, but social acceptance is on the rise.