Though there was much talk before the Lok Sabha elections in the State on “others” (third gender) voters, numbering 3,957 in the final list, only 4.04 per cent among them made it to the polling stations to exercise their franchise.
The voter turnout figures for “others” provided by the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, says that 160 among them voted on April 17. However, it is an improvement over the figures for the Assembly elections in 2013 when 49 of 2,125 voters (about 2 per cent), voted.
Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, at 27, had the highest number of third gender voters turning up to vote. Though Bangalore North had the highest number of voters registered under the “Others” category (365), only 18 among them voted.
As many as seven Lok Sabha constituencies did not have any third gender voter exercising franchise, though all of them had such voters registered under the category.
Soumya, a transgender, who had contested the Assembly elections last year from the Gandhinagar constituency on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, told The Hindu that the community was responding to elections, but slowly and cautiously. “It is not surprising that there is an indifference to elections given that we have always been discriminated against and have had little help from the political system and the administrative machinery,” she said.
Ms. Soumya said that the recent Supreme Court order recognising the transgender community as a “third gender” for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under the Constitution and the laws made by Parliament and the State Legislature was yet to penetrate deep into the community. “It will take time before they become aware of their rights,” she said.
