HYDERABAD: With over 1.35 crore women and 2,000 transgender persons slated to poll their votes on December 7, gender rights groups have come together, in what maybe the country’s first such effort, to demand a more gender-just election this year. Releasing a 14-point manifesto, the United Forum for Women and Transgenders, a collaboration of at least 30 associations working on women and transgender issues, has demanded multiple policy interventions from all parties aiming to form a government this year.

The interventions include areas of health, education, agriculture, discrimination against transgender people, and labour from unorganised sector. The women’s organisations plan to submit the same to various political parties on Monday. One of the most interesting demands has been to start recognizing rural women as farmers.

“At present women are only seen as subsidiaries to the farming activity. Nationally over 68% of the farmers are women,” added Sajaya Kakarla, a women’s rights activist. For working women, a more stringent enforcement of Internal Complaints Committee and for domestic workers being recognized as part of the workforce and not ignored as the informal sector.

Another critical demand is to have a women’s university for the State and at least one single women-only college across all mandals. “Idea is to have policies that encourage women to study and not get married as is the case with ‘Kalyanalakshmi’ and ‘Shadi Mubarak’,” added Sajaya.

The manifesto also highlights critical requirement for uplifting the transgender community. Though only 2000-odd transgender people are eligible to vote in this election, actual numbers run much higher with activists estimating at least 2 lakh, across the State. The main demand is to have the various provisions of Nalsar judgement, the landmark SC judgment of 2014 recognising the third gender, ratified in the state with a board that can look into all the grievances.