Vadodara: With 226 registered transgender voters, Vadodara district had the highest number of such eligible voters among all the districts in the state.
However, the show was lacklustre on Monday’s polling when only 32.74 per cent turned out to vote.
Among the 10 constituencies in the city, Akota had the highest number of transgender voters in the city. But, out of these 94 voters only 10 went to vote. Of 11 trangender voters in Karjan none voted, and so was the case in Waghodia and Padra constituencies too having three and two voters from the community respectively. In Manjalpur, only one of the six voters went to vote. Two of the four such voters in Savli constituency turned up at polling booths.
In the Vadodara city constituency five of the 11 transgender voters voted and 15 out of the 36 voters from this category voted in Sayajigunj.
The Raopura assembly seat, however, set an example as 41 of 59 transgender voters exercising their right to franchise. Dabhoi was the only seat in the city which had no transgender voters. In all, 74 transgender voters out of 226 reached the polling booths.
The transgender community in Vadodara had been actively involved in creating awareness regarding voting in the city. This included ensuring voting in the community itself and as a part of the larger voter awareness drive.
The Baranpura Akhada of transgenders in the city that was spearheading the awareness drive, however, led by example. The group is based in Baranpura that falls under the Raopura assembly seat which witnessed the highest turnout.
Head of the Baranpura group, Asha Masi said that most of the voters from the community in Baranpura had voted. “Transgenders in other parts of the city may not have voted, but we did. We do not understand why anyone should stay away from voting,” she said.
Asha Masi also rued the fact that the overall voting percentage also remained low despite their efforts. “People were unhappy and mentioned issues like price rise when we met them. They may have stayed away because of this unhappiness and a feeling that nothing changes even after they vote which is not correct,” she said.
Courtesy : TOI
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights .
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