Basic Income & Care for Transgender Persons

This is a project that Anveshi has undertaken in collaboration with India Network for Basic Income (INBI) with the transgender community in Hyderabad. INBI is a non-profit network of academics and activists who seek to foster informed and evidence-based conversation about basic income in India. The project is funded by the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). The project commenced in December 2022.

This project understands Transgender persons as those people who identify themselves as transgender. We define basic income as cash paid to all the members of a community in a given territory, universally, individually, periodically (usually monthly) and most importantly, unconditionally. In this project it is given to a select group of trans persons.

This project is envisaged as

• one that provides a Basic Income to selected trans participants for a period of 12 months as well as
• one that provides a safe space for caring and sharing through the monthly Care Workshops in order to promote and bring to conversation self-care practices for individual participants, and in the process also co-create a community of care;
• and finally develop a research agenda collaboratively. The project coordination committee will discuss with the project participants and arrive at a research agenda that can be undertaken by the group in a collaborative way.

While the first twelve months will involve work with the Project participants, the remaining five months after that will be devoted to reflecting and writing upon the research conducted during those 12 months and preparation of the final report. Therefore, the completion date of this project will be end-May 2024.