In a first of its kind initiative, authorities of the Election Commission (EC) held a special workshop in Panaji on Wednesday to impart training on the electoral process to transgenders.

Many transgenders brought to the notice of R. Menaka, the North Goa collector and Returning Officer for North Goa constituency, who launched the initiative, that their names have not yet been registered on the electoral rolls. Ms. Menaka then assured them of all support to ensure that they get their right to vote when the next revision of rolls take place. At the workshop, the participants were given a live demonstration on how to cast votes using Electronic Voting Machines.

‘Making polls inclusive’

The collector said that the initiative was part of the Election Commission’s mandate to ensure that no voter is left out and deprived of their right to vote. Ms. Menaka said, “We have been holding training sessions for persons with disabilities (PwDs) and members of various marginalised sections of society. We then thought it would be appropriate to train transgender people on how to participate in voting and make this an accessible and inclusive election.”

Rahila Khan, a lecturer at Goa Government Polytechnic, told The Hindu that though she has been regularly taking part in such training sessions for different sections of society, she was meeting transgenders for the first time.

Participants at the workshop wanted to know in what way their issues of lack of livelihood and acceptance by society would be resolved by voting for a day. Many of them said that they were better off identifying themselves as male or female voters than changing their status to the third gender just for the sake of an election and risk inviting more trouble in their day-to-day life.

Ms. Khan said, “Yes, some of them said they were fine with their male/female status in their voting cards. That is because many of their daily benefits and concessions come from that status and only for voting they do not want to risk that change. As society has not treated them well, they wait for such a platform to take out their anger and frustrations. I feel that this workshop is a very good first step. We have to understand their concerns and respect them.”

During the interaction, Ms. Khan tried to dispel their apprehensions saying that they are individuals with the right to decide whether they should change their gender status or continue with the existing status. She said, “If you want to change the status to another gender, then the EC has made that option available too. You only have to fill a form.”

Raising concerns

Some of the participants complained that the process of changing their gender status for voting purposes was quick in metro cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, but was slow in Goa. Zoya Chawan from South Goa told The Hindu that she has voted several times, but would have loved to vote this time as a transgender person. However, she said that her voting card and name on electoral rolls continued to identify her as a male.

Suzan Debnath and Sonia Paul, who hail from Kolkata but have settled in Calangute in coastal Goa, said that they possessed voting cards from Kolkata which identified them as females. Ms. Suzan said, “We are not very excited about voting, what we need is society’s acceptance and entry into the mainstream so that many of our problems and struggles for a normal life are resolved.” Priya from Candolim in North coastal Goa said that such workshops help members of the transgender community become a part of mainstream society. She hoped that the media would play an effective role in spreading awareness of their struggles and challenges in society.

Participants for the workshop were mobilised by organisations like Humsath (associated with Humsafar Trust in Mumbai), Darpan and Rishta. Lalbeg, representing Humsath in Vasco, appreciated the initiative and said transgenders were looking forward to asserting their third gender status and exercising their right to vote in this election. He said that in South Goa there are about 1,500 trangenders and 2,200 in North Goa. He said that in the absence of livelihood options, most of them engaged in commercial sex or resorted to begging.

‘Need change in attitudes’

Election Commission officials said that they are working on bringing about a change in attitude in the way society perceives members of the transgender community. When asked about the issue of discrimination raised by some of the participants in the workshop, Ms. Khan said that election authorities are confident that no transgender person or PwD will face discrimination in this election as they have been educated about transgender issues and rights.