Beyond the Brinks: Social Attitude towards the Third Gender Community of Assam and Nagaland

Social attitude, according to the American Psychological Association, refers to “a person’s general disposition or manner toward other people” which can be “friendly or hostile”. History reruns factuality of the dominant who mostly are the previleged people/groups. They face friendly attitude from society at large, while the marginalized are the underprevileged ones, who mostly face hostile attitude from society. The Third Gender community is one of those marginalized categories who face negative attitude from society. Under the backdrop, it was sought to take up this study which is part of a larger project. Based on interviews from third gender people of Assam and Nagaland, conducted through snowball sampling method, the research was conducted. The primary data so analysed using mixed methods of research, suggests that majority of the third genders from the two states have faced unfriendly and unpleasent social attitude. Hence, I argue that such attitude further propels the third gender community outside the brinks of society, which in place of inclusion enhances the gap towards exclusion. It is essential to minimise this gap so as to to reach the ideals of social justice.