Bengaluru: The special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has hit Karnataka’s transgender community harder than most, with the number of third gender voters falling 43% from 4,995 to 2,841. Overall, the exercise reduced the state’s voter count by almost 18%.Community members say the re-verification was difficult even for the literate and far tougher for them.Before the SIR, the highest concentrations of third gender voters were in Vijayanagar of BBMP South (183), KR Pura of BBMP North (164), Byatarayanapura of BBMP Urban (126), CV Raman Nagar of BBMP North (119) and Mahadevapura of Bengaluru Urban (115). The drop in these constituencies ranged from 70.4% in Mahadevapura to 82.5% in Vijayanagar.In north Karnataka, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Bijapur, Ballari and Koppal have sizeable third gender populations. Constituency-level declines in these districts ranged from 6% in Ballari’s Siraguppa to 56.7% in Kalaburagi.Community leaders attributed the low registration to the onerous re-verification, particularly for those who lack documents and have severed family ties.“As an artist, I was lucky,” said Manjamma Jogathi, whose public stature helped her get a school certificate with her present name in brackets. “Several did not have that. They have migrated to cities such as Bengaluru and Pune and do not have documents to prove their long-term residence,” she told TOI.“Many did not complete education. The ECI should have made provisions for a DC/ZP CEO certification to be allowed as proof of their residence instead of the standard set of documents that others have been asked. The lack of documentation has been the biggest hurdle,” she said, on enrolling as voters and retaining their franchise.Activist and transgender woman Rakshitha M from Bengaluru pointed to information gaps within the community. “The community members do not know of our fundamental rights. We all heard that the SIR process was mandatory. But getting there was a large hurdle: to get a name change certificate, TC, marks card. Especially since many members do not have family support,” she said.“I have been living in the same house for 16 years and had my castration certificate, Aadhaar and PAN card, and name change too, and managed to produce these. But how many can talk to the officials and counter questions such as ‘you claim to be a woman but your voice is masculine’,” said Rakshitha.Chandini from Peenya said repeated visits by officials left her feeling cornered. “The process made me feel discriminated against when they checked with me three times for documents. This is despite being a voter for several years. At one point, I wondered if I was being treated this way for being different,” she said, explaining the reluctance of other community members to participate.
