More than 25% of State’s transgender voters in Thiruvananthapuram district

More than 25% of the transgender voters in the State are in Thiruvananthapuram district. Of the total 367 transgender voters, 94 are in the district, Thiruvananthapuram Assistant Collector Akhil V. Menon, who is the nodal of the district SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation), said.

Mr. Menon said the SVEEP theme this year was inclusive and accessible elections with focus on certain population categories. A look at the turnout in the previous elections revealed that in 2019 only 32% of the transgender persons who were on the electoral roll ended up voting.

Even the number of transgender persons on the voter list was less. In 2019, the number was in the 30s. By the 2021 Assembly elections, the district election officials had increased it to 60, but following some deletions it came down to around 50. This year, the goal was to increase transgender enrolments and get more of them to vote by going the extra mile. A campaign ‘Paint the booth rainbow’ was initiated on the basis of field studies that put the number of transgender people eligible to vote in the Thiruvanthapuram and Attingal Lok Sabha constituencies at around 100. Interactions with transgender voters revealed that they were unhappy with the ‘third gender’ reference or their reception at times in the polling booth when they went to vote.

When the district election authorities came to know from the Election Commission of India website that voter ID cards for transgender persons were being issued with ‘transgender’ on it, this was communicated to the transgender community to positive results. Two campaigns – one each in Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal – were held to increase transgender voter enrolment. To reach out to them, a district SVEEP ambassador – Syama S. Prabha for transgender persons was named. Multiple meetings were also held with the transgender cell of the Social Justice department so that it could further increase enrolment. The election officials also collaborated with a nongovernmental organisation ‘Dale View.’ All this helped add nearly 40 transgender persons to the voter list through dedicated camps held over twothree days.

Gone up

The number of transgender voters in the district has gone up by 95.83% from that in 2019. There has been a 70.9% increase in the number of transgender voters in the district between January and April this year alone owing to the number of campaigns organised by the SVEEP team, Mr. Menon said. The next challenge is how to get them to vote. For this, one booth in the Thiruvananthapuram legislative assembly constituency that has the largest number of transgender voters will be made transgender friendly.

The SVEEP team is also writing to each transgender voter to urge them to exercise their right to vote. “Even when we designed the poll mascot for the district this year, one of its wings was put in rainbow colours to reflect the emphasis of SVEEP in this area,” Mr. Menon said.

To address the bias in queues usually one each for men and women in polling booths, there will be a dedicated queue for transgender persons in places where the number of voters from the community is large enough. In other places, the queues will be designated as general and women, he said.