The Thiruvananthapuram district is home to more than 25% of the state’s transgender citizens.
Of the total 367 transgender voters, 94 are in the district, Thiruvananthapuram Assistant Collector Akhil V. Menon, who is the nodal of the district SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation), said.
Mr. Menon claimed that the SVEEP design for this year was elections that were open and accessible and placed a focus on specific population groups. In the previous votes, a look at the attendance revealed that only 32% of the transgender people who were on the electoral roll in 2019 ended up election.
Yet the transgender voting list had fewer transgender people on it. In 2019, the amount was in the 30s. By the 2021 Assembly elections, city election authorities had increased it to 60, but after some omissions, it dropped to around 50.
This time, the goal was to increase transgender enrollment and encourage more of them to cast ballots by going the extra mile. On the basis of industry studies, a campaign called “Paint the Booth Rainbow” was started, with estimates of around 100 transgender voters ready to cast ballot in Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal Lok Sabha constituencies. Transgender voters’ interactions with them revealed that they were unhappy with the “third gender” reference or their sometimes hostile reception when they went to vote.
The trans community was informed when the city election officials learned from the site of the Election Commission of India that voter ID accounts for trans people were being issued with the word “transgender” on them, which led to good outcomes.
To improve transgender voter turnout, two campaigns were held, one for each of Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal. A city SVEEP adviser for transgender people, Syama S. Prabha, was given the name to reach out to them. In order to improve enrollment, the Social Justice department’s transgender cell held several meetings with it in order to increase enrollment. Additionally, the election authorities worked with a non-profit organization called “Dale View.” All of this resulted in the addition of nearly 40 trans candidates to the voter rolls through special shelters held over the course of two to three days.
In the city, there are more transgender voters than there are in 2019. The voter turnout has increased by 95.8% from the previous year. The number of activities organized by the SVEEP staff has increased by 70.9% in the area between January and April this year alone, according to Mr. Menon.
Next up is figuring out how to get them to cast ballots. In order to achieve this, one booth in the Thiruvananthapuram legislative council district with the highest proportion of transgender citizens will be made gender helpful. All participants did have training, and sex and social justice issues will be addressed in all cases.
The SVEEP group also writes to transgender voters to urge them to practice their right to vote while under the command of the city collector. One of its arms was colored in rainbow colors even when the district’s surveys mascot was being designed this year to reflect the importance of SVEEP in this region, according to Mr. Menon.
There will be a dedicated backlog for trans people in areas where the voter turnout is sufficient to address the discrimination in the polling booths, which are typically one for people and one for women. In other areas, the counters will become designated as standard and people, he said.
