Simran 1, Prof. Jaya Shrivastava 2
1 Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Sociology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Corresponding author: Simran, E-mail: simrannbbau@gmail.com
2 Professor, Department of Sociology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University(A Central University), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
E-mail: jayabbau@gmail.com
Issue: Vol. 2 No. 3 (September 2026) – Anubodhan
Received: 9 September 2026 / Accepted: 17 September 2026 / Published online: 21 September 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n3.2026.109
Abstract
The economic marginalisation of transgender persons in India and their exclusion from formal-sector employment are closely connected to their exclusion from mainstream social and institutional structures. Although legal and policy developments have increasingly recognised the rights of transgender persons, access to secure and dignified livelihoods remains uneven.
This paper examines the informalisation of transgender livelihoods shaped by discrimination, educational disadvantage, family rejection, barriers to formal employment and social exclusion. It further examines the forms of informal and precarious livelihoods through which transgender persons navigate the limited economic opportunities and the consequences of such informalisation for their economic security and social inclusion. Rather than treating engagement in informal occupations as an individual choice, the paper conceptualises it as an outcome of limited opportunities within the formal job market. Due to discrimination in recruitment and workplaces and exclusion from education and social support, the majority of them are concentrated in community-based traditional, informal forms of livelihood, including Badhai, ritual begging and sex work, with some who are self-employed.
The study adopts a mixed-methods secondary data approach, drawing both quantitative and qualitative data from research articles, government and institutional reports, legal documents, and policy literature on transgender livelihoods and employment in India. The literature is thematically analysed through the framework of social exclusion to examine the relationship between barriers to formal employment, livelihood informalisation, and economic precarity.
The paper views the informalisation of transgender livelihoods as the cumulative effect of exclusion across family, education, community, and employment institutions, as a result of which the viable economic choices available to transgender persons are narrowed down. The paper concludes that meaningful economic inclusion requires a shift from viewing informal livelihoods as isolated occupational outcomes towards understanding them as manifestations of broader structures of social and economic exclusion.
Keywords: Transgender persons, informalisation, livelihoods, social exclusion, economic precarity, employment discrimination, labour market
How to cite: Simran, A. & Shrivastava, J. (2026). The Informalisation of Transgender Livelihoods in India: Social Exclusion, Economic Precarity and Barriers to Formal Employment. Anubodhan, 2(3), 164–176. https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n3.2026.109