Transgender voters in Karnataka double in 5 years

BENGALURU: The recent draft electoral rolls have brought cheer to sexual minorities in Karnataka: 4,340 voters have registered as transgenders, up from 2,125 voters in the 2013 assembly elections.

This is in addition to most sexual minorities who would have identified themselves as a woman or man. According to the data with the Sexual Minorities

Forum

, at least 50,000 transgenders are covered under HIV prevention schemes in Karnataka. Transgenders used to register themselves as ‘others’ earlier. This was replaced by ‘transgenders’ recently.

‘Poor voting pattern shows discrimination’

The 'others' category was recently replaced by ‘transgenders’, and this classification includes Jogappas, Kothis, female-to-male transgenders, male-to-female transgenders and Mangalamukhis.

Activists, though, are not buoyed by the jump in number of voters identifying themselves as transgenders. “The number of transgender voters does not account for even 10% of the population. Many transgenders identify themselves as femaleor malein their voter ID cards to be eligible for welfare schemes,” said

Mallappa S Kumbar

, state coordinator of theforum.

Manohar Elavarthy

, founder, Sangama, which has been fighting for the rightsof sexual minorities, suspects the spike in the number of transgenders could be a data error, given that electoral rolls are teeming with errors. “The number of transgenders in the electoral rolls is not indicative of the population. There are at least 10,000 transgenders in the state and the number could well be 50,000. It would be interesting to know who are these4,340transgender voters,” Elavarthy said.

Only 49 of 2,125 voters who had registered under the ‘others’ category voted in the 2013 assembly polls. In the 2014

Lok Sabha

polls, 160 of 3,957 voters registered under ‘others’ category had voted.

Nisha Gulur

, advocacy officer, Sangama, said the poor voting percentage explains the stigma and discrimination faced by the community. “Transgenders are not sure in which queue to stand while waiting to cast their vote. The numbers may have increased, as many have Aadhaar numbers now. While standing in the queue, there are chances of facing discrimination and hence many shy away from the voting exercise,” she said.



Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, Location Guesser and Mini Crossword.