After casting her vote at Kavundampalayam Assembly segment on Monday, transgender activist and news reader Padmini Prakash posted a selfie on facebook. “Whoever comes to power they are not going to do anything for us,” was a comment for it from transgender S. Kirthi, while hundreds of men and women liked and shared it.
According to a report from the District Election Office, there are 207 transgender voters in the 10 assembly segments in the district. It includes 31 who had enrolled themselves in the supplementary revision in April. But, only 34 of them (16.4 per cent) cast their votes.
This makes it almost look like a boycott of the poll. Padmini Prakash was among many who cast their vote as female voters. “Only those who got newly enrolled in the voters list after 2014 have got the transgender identity. Prior to it we were enrolled as women and are facing difficulty in getting the gender changed,” she said.
Even in the recent supplementary revision she applied for a couple of corrections including gender.
The other mistakes were corrected but the gender was still female. “The Supreme Court recognised us as the third gender. Sadly, neither the Election Commission nor the government have,” she lamented.
According to her there are more than 1,500 transgenders in the district, of which there are around 500 in the city. “We have not even been recognised by gender. Conducting a drive to come out with a realistic figure on the number of transgenders in the State is among other primary demands we are fighting for decades,” she said.
Shenbaka and Janaki said they were used only for voter awareness programmes. “Political parties have assurances for students, women, fishermen and weavers among many others in their manifesto that runs for hundreds of pages. But no mention of us,” says Eswaramoorthi alias Janaki, secretary of Amutha Surabhi Transgender Welfare Society.
Thought the Supreme Court announced reservation for transgenders in government jobs, only one has managed to get one as a sub inspector of police, after undergoing lot of struggles. A government job is one of their most important demands as many are into begging and other odd jobs.
Other demands
Their other demands are including the third gender in government forms, support centres for young transgenders dropping out of schools and colleges, skill training centres to help them stand on their own and support and care for aged transgenders.
According to Janaki, the other reason for poor turn out could be because they were working in other states (for a better pay) and could not come for casting their votes.
