A conscious effort to assert their status as the third gender seems to be growing in the transgender community in Karnataka if numbers are any indication. Karnataka — at 2,125 — has more number of voters registered as ‘others’ compared to any other State in the Assembly elections held after 2009.
Voters and candidates are enumerated under the categories of ‘male’, ‘female’ and ‘others’ since November 2009 when the Election Commission took a decision to count the third gender separately.
A look at the statistics of Assembly elections held in various States after the notification shows the next highest number registered as ‘others’ was in Tamil Nadu (1,394) in the 2011 Assembly elections. Gujarat Assembly polls in 2012 had 189 such voters, while it was five each in Puducherry and Punjab. There was one in Himachal Pradesh in the 2012 polls. None was registered under this category in seven other States where Assembly elections were held after the notification.
Of the 2,125 voters registered as ‘others’, 685 are from Bangalore city (excluding Anekal), according to P.G. Bhat of Smart Vote campaign. The total number of voters in Bangalore is over 62 lakh.
Christy Raj of the non-governmental organisation Samara, who is registered as ‘others’, said many in the community choose to register as ‘male’ or ‘female’ even though they are informed about this option.
Parveen, a transgender Congress candidate, who won in the recent urban local body elections from Bellary (Ward no. 4) in north Karnataka, is happy that many are now coming forward to register under the ‘others’ category. “If you take interest in politics, you can not only work for the community that faces many kinds of harassment, but also for people in general,” said Parveen.
On the other hand, there are also activists who are sceptical about whether categorisation as the third gender would help in the long term. Manohar Elavarthi, working committee member of Praja Rajakiya Vedike, said: “The effort should instead be towards making sex change procedures less cumbersome and transition from male to female status or vice versa easier legally as well.”
He also said that he was “very surprised” at the number of registered ‘others’ voters in Karnataka being as high as it is, considering no vigorous campaign was conducted here unlike in Tamil Nadu to create awareness on the matter.
