Born as men, they voted as women

VADODARA: These assembly polls are special for Manvi Vaishnav. Born as a man, she exercised her voting right as a woman on Thursday.

Vaishnav voted using her new Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) card. She was born as Yogesh Vaishnav, Manvi had left home in childhood struggling with her gender identity. She stayed with eunuchs before become a volunteer for Lakshya Trust working for LGBT rights.

She underwent a sex reassignment surgery in March 2016. "Voting today was more of a recognition of my gender identity and rights as a woman. She said that she voted hoping that the new government would do something for people like her," she said. After her operation, Manvi had obtained a certificate from the civil surgeon and got a gazette notification done. She approached the election officers with supporting documents and made changes to her EPIC.

Vadodara-resident Aakruti Patel (27) was born Yogesh Patel in Thasra in Kheda will also cast her vote to elect the state's government for the next five years on a woman's ID card. She realized that she was indeed a girl within and decided to get sex revision surgery done. Interestingly, Aakruti got her name and gender changed in her ID papers even before she opted to go under the scalpel.