EC to form committee to make process of enlisting transgenders as voters easier

In a bid to make polls more inclusive, the election commission of India has decided to set up a committee that will undertake a study to make the process of becoming a voter easier for the Transgender community.

Yesterday, a delegation of ECI officials met a few members of the Transgenders' committee in Pune.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar informed the media that EC has decided to set up a committee to study to make the process of becoming a voter easier for the Transgender community. Maharashtra Chief Electoral officer Shreekant Deshpande will chair this Committee. Kumar was in Pune for the national-level launch of a special summary revision of voters' list. The meeting was part of the Election Commission Special Summary Revision 2023 launched in the Pune district of Maharashtra.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv said, "We had a meeting with transgender today and I must say their comment and their feeling moved us. They are saying we don't have rights in the properties so what address do we give, we have stigma our date birth not known. We write TG Male TG Female in forms, so we have taken on ourselves to include Transgender in a very focused manner and that is what the society should be doing nobody should be marginalised at any cost".

Kumar said that the transgender community is very very enthusiastic about voting rights, and added, "after meeting with them we have decided to appoint a committee straight away for the transgender for their enlisting in which we will see how we can make our process more accessible in terms of their date of birth their certificate how can we take the self affidavit as proof or without even the property rights".

"CEO Maharashtra has done a whole lot of work in this area, he will chair this committee and from all India for enlisting the participation of transgenders. We will also attempt to make some of the Transgender our national icons they deserve to be national icons they are also part of the society as much as anybody of us," Kumar said.

Talking about another `special group' of voters, also termed as `deprived groups', Kumar said that there are 75 particularly vulnerable tribal groups whose numbers are very small, sometimes less than 100, and who live in far-off areas. "Voter card is empowerment," and hence the ECI is conducting an outreach program to enlist the members of such marginalized groups as voters, he said.