EVEN AS the voter turnout in the Lok Sabha elections was relatively low, there was a rise in the voting percentage of “third gender” voters in Uttar Pradesh - from about 4.46 per cent in 2019 to 12.33 per cent. However, with only 810 out of 6,628 registered “third gender” voters in the state exercising their franchise this time, there is still a long way to go as far as proper inclusion of the community in the electoral process is concerned. “We tried our best to raise awareness, but there is a long way to go. Many third gender voters are living away from their families and have settled in other districts or states and still facing difficulties in getting their address proof,” says Amruta, a third gender who worked along with the Returning Officer in Gonda district and District Magistrate (DM) Neha Sharma to create awareness to vote. Although the district-wise third gender voting data is still to be recorded, DM Sharma claims that the overall voting percentage in her district increased by nearly 0.5 per cent. “We started SWEEP activities along with dialogue with third genders from March 31. There are 92 of them in the district. We interacted with them and among the community but also took their help for outreach to many communities as they have considerable reach among the society.,” said Sharma. While the efforts did help in raising the overall voting percentage of third genders this time, the community feels that more interventions would be required from the government end to facilitate the registration process, including the process of getting Aadhaar cards. “There is still hesitance in the society to give address proof to members of the community. I have been living in Gonda for a year now and still failed to get my own Aadhaar card updated and thus could not vote,” says Amruta. Amruta adds, “As for those who have got voter IDs, there is lesser inclination or motivation to vote. There is a thought that what is the point of voting as people seek our help for campaign but no one thinks about us after they are voted to power. So many in the community become indifferent to the electoral process and distance themselves.” While the number of third genders who voted increased from 347 in 2019 to 810 in this election, the number of third gender electors decreased. Only 6,682 third gender voters had registered this time as against 7,775 such voters in 2019.
