Awareness programmes in the form of a cycle rally by the members of the transgender community, to encourage voters’ participation, was carried out by district officials in north Delhi on Sunday.
As part of the programme, transgender persons stood at traffic intersections in Azadpur, Jahangirpuri and Model Town holding placards with messages on it to encourage people to leave all work and cast their vote. They also spoke to prospective voters about the importance of registering one’s vote and distributed wrist bands as part of the exercise.
An official in-charge of the exercise said that the members of the transgender community, who had been approached to have their names registered on the electoral rolls, have volunteered their names for the exercise.
Good response
Employing transgender people for voters’ awareness helped attract several people because they were conspicuous and a lot of them were also surprised to see such a thing happening, the official said.
The cycle rally started at 6.30 in the morning from Adventure Island in Rohini to Madhuban Chowk. It was organised by District Election Officer, North-West.
A spokesperson for the Chief Electoral Officer said that the exercises were environment-building ones in order to help overcome urban or upper-class apathy towards electoral participation.
