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| Photo Credit: Reuters
The transgender community is Kolkata says that elections are as important to them as they are to anyone else, and that they would prefer a government that treats them equally with other citizens of the country.
“We too are citizens of India and it is important that we vote, whether it is this election or another election. Who will get to govern the country, govern the State, govern the municipality, we should also participate in these decisions. Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Dalits, minorities — they all express their opinion at the ballot box. Similarly, we should also raise our issues so that political parties listen to us,” community member Debdatta Biswas, who has just finished M.A. in Bengali and is currently pursuing B.Ed., said.
While there are not too many members of the third gender registered as voters, many of those who will vote don’t seem to be in favour of the local parties. “I would not name any political party, but I would say we prefer the Central government over the State government, and we will vote accordingly. We have reasons for that,” Ranjita Sinha, director of the Association of Transgender/Hijra and a representative of the community in Bengal, told The Hindu.
“The (present) Central government never opposed the transgender movement. In fact, it set up a Transgender Council. It also introduced Garima Griha, to give shelter to transgender people thrown out of their homes and to train them for livelihood and give them medical treatment. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, they gave our people money and ration,” Ms. Sinha said.
“The State government, on the other hand, has never done anything to support us. It is always a struggle to go to a State government department with problems related to discrimination, stigma or violence. There are so many schemes for women, for girls, but none for the transgender community — why? If women can be eligible for their parents’ pension, including those widowed, why not transgender children?” she asked.
According to the Election Commission of India, the number of transgender people registered as voters — across the country — is only 48,000. Ms Sinha claimed that such a low figure was due to poor training of those doing the count. “There is no census yet,” she said.
“Our community has always been fighting for its rights, but how much of the rights has it got yet? Today, all other people have their rights — for education, for ration, for health, for toilets, but our struggle continues. We only hope our public representatives take up our issues and support our struggle,” Shruti and Debanjan, a transgender couple in the city, said.