Hyderabad: Call it a social stigma or intentional negligence by political parties in giving due importance, there has been no positive impact on transgenders' vote enrollment in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Even though the chief electoral officer of Telangana and other officers have given a boost to transgenders by appointing an educated transgender Laila Oruganti as a brand ambassador to create awareness among transgenders, only 2,737 of them have enrolled their names as voters. There are approximately 1.50 lakh transgenders spread across the state.
Laila Oruganti stressed that there is a social stigma, which restricts them to come forward and enroll themselves as voters. This is largely due to the absence of support from the government and political parties to them.
"When the governments reserved constituencies for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections for SCs and STs, why did they fail to allocate separate reservations for transgenders to contest in elections?” Laila asked and added that at least 10 per cent of transgenders in the state are educated.
"We tried our best to motivate transgenders and the importance of exercising the right of vote. We hope the figure will go up in the future," said Laila, who holds a master's degree in sociology from Kakatiya University.
The 35-year-old Rahini from Balanagar said that some days back, she received a text message to enroll herself as a voter. "I don't want to enroll as I don't want to disclose my details," she added.
Transgender Sneha, who works for their rights in Hanamkonda, said that she is working for the uplift of the community. There are a number of educated transgenders but no one is willing to provide jobs to us. We demand the government to provide reservations for transgenders, Sneha said.
Transgenders enrolled as voters in the last decade
2024 Lok Sabha polls: 2,737
2023 Assembly polls: 2,557
2018 Assembly polls: 2,885
2014 Assembly polls: 2,000
