Telangana polls: Transgender community needs to come out in numbers to showcase themselves as a vote bank, says Oruganti Laila

In the 2018 Telangana Assembly polls, 2,676 persons had registered themselves under the third gender category and only 191 of them had voted. In 2023, the enrollment of transgender persons as of date stands at 2,557. The Election Commission this time has emphasised ensuring no one is left behind from exercising their right to vote.

Laila, 43, from Warangal district, has a Master’s degree in Sociology and has been running an NGO – Modern Awareness Society (MAS) — since 2004. The new role as a state icon for improving voter enrollment among communities, especially among transgender persons, is an extension of what she has been doing as a social worker.

She feels a lot has changed since the time she had started the NGO and it is time now for the transgender community to come out in numbers to showcase themselves as a vote bank.

According to her, there are more than 1 lakh transgender persons in Telangana today as the State’s Integrated Household Survey conducted in 2014 enumerated more than 58,000 transgender persons.

“We may be fewer in numbers but we are a vote bank. Political parties talk about the welfare of women, farmers, pensioners etc but no one wants to even say the word transgender, forget about announcing schemes for our welfare and livelihood,” she told indianexpress.com.

In the run-up to the election, Laila has been holding day camps in different districts in coordination with the district election officers, government departments and social groups and talking to the members of the community about the need to exercise their vote.

Besides travelling, she has been reaching out to the community through WhatsApp groups as the state president of the Telangana Hijra Transgender Samithi. The Samithi has its network of support groups in each district and addresses the concerns as a collective.

However, there is a challenge. “People do not want to enroll as the third gender in the voter’s list because there is absolutely no benefit in doing so. On the other hand, it will risk our lives, jobs, families, etc. The stigma is bound to rise and in some cases, even our own families don’t accept us. It will also put our work lives in jeopardy and no one would rent out a home to us. Why will anyone want that to happen?” Laila asked while adding that transgender persons do not even have a separate queue outside the polling booth and may face humiliation in a crowd of men and women.

The community, she said, still faces a lot of discrimination, violence, poverty, humiliation and contempt even today and only a gradual change can be expected.

“We have only one request to the governments and political parties — treat us as equal citizens. We too deserve a dignified life. As we continue our fight for horizontal reservation in education and employment, I would like to stress on the fact that our welfare is also the state’s responsibility.”

“I tell members of our community that there is no point in being invisible. Only if we are seen in numbers, will they accept our existence,” she said, noting that it is a long-term plan and may not be immediately possible.

While noting that new enrollments as third gender or altering the existing enrollments is not a tedious process, she added, “In this election, we are hoping to add 200 to 300 new enrollments and a voter turnout in better figure than last time. But by the Lok Sabha polls next year, I am hoping the enrollments will reach at least 10,000.”