Role of Tourism for the Development of Depressed Communities: A Case Study of Transgender of Hazara Division
Abstract
Individuals with gender disparity, or those beyond conventional gender (male or female) are transgender such as transgender-women, or transgender-male. In a local language they are known as Hijra, Khwaja-Sira and they live in groups normally called Dhera. They normally face variety of challenges in daily lives, including social discrimination, social dishonor, judgmental nature of society and cultural and personal harassment. The current study focused on transgender efficacy, in the tourism industry at Hazara division. The goal of this research is to understand and uncover the socio-economic challenges and constraints faced by the transgender in Hazara division. This study design found that major portion of the transgender community in Hazara division consisted of young population (18 to 30 years), which is considered the age full of energy and need to be channelized. Most of them are enough educated to read, write, and understand Urdu and English. It is noteworthy to mention, that most of the tourist coming to this region belong to Punjab province and all of them can speak and understand Urdu very well. The most important finding is about their skill level that indicated most of them retain certain type of skill level which can be considered in tourism industry. Data indicates that members of transgender community can be effectively trained and utilized as porter, cook, driver, guide and for tourism promotion. It may not only boost the tourism industry but also can uplift their financial situation they are having in. These findings can be used as a foundation to design a massive scale of study to uplift the standard of transgender life.
Key Words: Transgender, Tourism, Depressed Community.
