Colours of democracy: Third gender voters rise by 32.74%

Bhopal: The 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be special in many ways, and one of them being the steep rise in the number of third gender voters, who are expected to exercise their franchise in unprecedented numbers.

The third gender votes may not necessarily swing the tide, but are enough to add colours and catch one’s attention while they stand in long queues to press the button.

As compared to 2014, there has been an increase of 351 third gender voters for the ensuing polls in Madhya Pradesh. This year, 1,423 transgender people have been included in the voters’ list, which is an increase of 32.74% and this figure is way above the corresponding percentage of male and female voters.

The overall increase of voters in MP stands at 6.88% with a total of 5,14,02,020 names that have been registered. Male voters account for 2,67,78,268 (an increase of 5.89%), while female voters stand at 2,46,22,329 (an increase of 7.99%). The state has 29 Lok Sabha seats.

2014 LS polls saw 1,072 third gender voters, which has increased to 1,423 for this year.

Indore has the highest number of third gender with the presence of 181 voters. Their lowest presence is recorded in Balaghat where only 12 third gender voters have registered. Out of the 29 constituencies, 18 have seen an increase in the third gender voters, while in 11 constituencies their strength decreased.

The highest increase of third gender voters is from Hoshangabad, where their strength increased from 26 to 66 in 2019, while in Gwalior the number of voters have come down to 65 from 120.

In Rewa, there was no third gender voter five years ago, but this year 13 new third gender voters have registered.

In admission, scholarship, examination and other forms of colleges and universities across the state, a separate column for ‘transgender’ — third gender — apart from ‘male’ and ‘female’ was added from the 2015-16 academic session. In 2014, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had notified transgender as third gender, allowing them to avail scholarships and fellowship programmes for studying in higher educational institutions.

Experts said an upsurge in third gender voters has been attributed to the fact that they are also an important part of the electoral process. A senior faculty of Barkatullah University, seeking anonymity said, “I have been contacted by several third gender students who want to study. They are keen for higher studies also. This is a good trend and has started showing good results as their strength as voters have also increased.”

Gfx

Third gender voters in MP (2019)

Constituency Third gender voters

Balaghat 12

Betul 28

Bhind 41

Bhopal 172

Chhindwara 23

Damoh 31

Dewas 30

Dhar 49

Guna 44

Gwalior 65

Hoshangabad 66

Indore 181

Jabalpur 73

Khajuraho 53

Khandwa 77

Khargone 19

Mandla 27

Mandsaur 28

Morena 74

Rajgarh 31

Ratlam 29

Rewa 13

Sagar 34

Satna 27

Shahdol 22

Sidhi 25

Tikamgarh 30

Ujjain 75

Vidisha 44