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%.
Especially since many members do not have family support,” she said. Chandini from Peenya said repeated visits by officials left her feeling cornered. 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.
Community members say the re-verification was difficult even for the literate and far tougher for them. Community leaders attributed the low registration to the onerous re-verification, particularly for those who lack documents and have severed family ties. 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. “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.