Transphobia and social exclusion: exclusion error by design? access to the National Economic Recovery Program for transgender people in Indonesia

The social assistance in Indonesia is closely related to the country’s poverty eradication plans and their four fundamental goals: enhancing social protection programs, improving access of poor people to essential services, empowering the community, and building inclusive development. However, in its implementation, exclusion errors are part of the most talked problems. Exclusion errors may result in the ineffectiveness of social assistance programs, including the National Economic Recovery program, a series of activities to accelerate the handling of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic and to face threats that endanger the national economy. This study looks at how transgender people, one of the most marginalised communities in Indonesia, access the National Economic Recovery program from the social exclusion approach. The study is based on primary data collected from 114 individual, including 67 transgender respondents, and five civil organisations that focus on the rights of the transgender community in Indonesia. On the basis of this primary data, the study reveals that gender identity, income class, employment status, age, and location significantly contribute to the perception of social exclusion. However, the result also shows different signs of correlation among independent variables. Positive correlations appear between social exclusion and transgender; social exclusion and urban areas (Jakarta, the country’s capital). In contrast, negative correlations appear between income classes and social exclusion, employment status and social exclusion, and between age and social exclusion. The results about different perceptions between transgender people and non-transgender people show that the non-transgender group sees that they received more assistance from neighbourhood associations in accessing the national Economic Recovery program, while the transgender group feels that they received more assistance from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). From qualitative analysis, the study finds that the requirement to provide identity cards is one of the main constraints the transgender community has to face in accessing the program. In addition to social exclusion, they receive from the neighbourhoods which may block their access to social assistance