Be it education, employment or constitutional rights, people from transgender community experience discrimination, violence, and widespread prejudice which is a matter of a matter of serious concern requiring the state and the concerned state governments to come up with necessary steps. More or less, the scenario remains almost same as the the people from the transgender community (third gender) have been struggling continuously in a bid to safeguard their rights in Haryana. Despite the tall claims of the ruling governments in the state, the scenario remains unchanged as transgender face stigma in various settings including education, and employment, even in terms of equal representation in electoral system as there are below five hundred registered voters from the community.
When it comes to voting in the name of the festival of democracy, the situation of the transgender community is very worrying here too. Like men and women, transgenders also have the right to vote, but the situation is that there are only a few transgender voters in Haryana and according to the data of the Election Commission of India (ECI), till April 10, 2024, Only 458 transgender’s voters are registered in Haryana. Apart from this, the worse situation is that the number of transgenders above the age of 50 in Haryana is negligible. The ground reality pertaining to the representation of the transgender community in society is pretty visible from the statistics of ECI. It is noteworthy, that Faridabad and adjoining Gurugram districts falling in the National Capital Region (NCR) do occupy the top position in terms of maximum registered transgender voters across the state. In this series, Faridabad district is at the forefront with a maximum of 79 transgender registered voters in Haryana followed by Gurugram district where 49 transgender voters are registered. Thus, the statistics revealed that with a total of 128 Transgender voters, Faridabad and Gurugram constitute around 28 percent of the total registered voters. Apart from this, there are 47 transgenders in Ambala, 38 in Palwal, 34 in Sonipat, 23 in Karnal, 20 in Sirsa, 17 in Fatehabad, 13 in Jhajjar, 12 in Jind, 14 in Panipat, 22 in Kaithal and Kurukshetra, 11 each and 10 in Hisar. Apart from this, there are 8 transgender voters in Bhiwani, 7 in Rohtak, 4 in Yamunanagar and 1 in Charkhi Dadri.
Divulging more details in this regard
Rajkumar Lohan, Joint CEO said that the transgender voters are continuously being motivated for vote registration. They can get themselves registered on the Voter Helpline App (VHA) of the Election Commission. Applying for voting through these mediums does not reveal identity in any way. The Election Commission is trying to get more and more voters registered.
It is pertinent to mention that as of April 4, 2019, there were 174 transgenders. In the last five years, the number of registered transgender voters has witnessed a multifold spike as the number of voters from 174 in April 2019 reached to 485 with an increase of 284 fresh voters during a period of five years. According to the information received on the basis of 21 districts in the year 2019, even at that time Faridabad was at the top in terms of the number of registered transgender voters where there were 25 voters followed by Sonipat (24), Gurugram (19), Panipat (18), Panchkula (14), Mewat (11), Sirsa, Jind, Kaithal and Ambala (7 each). Mahendragarh (5), Fatehabad, Jhajjar, Karnal and Yamunanagar (4 each); Bhiwani and Hisar (3 each); while there were registered voters in Kurukshetra, Rohtak, Palwal and Rewari (2 each). It is worth mentioning that the ECI had mentioned that since 2012, transgender voters were placed in the ‘Others’ category. It was revealed by the ECI that there were around 38 thousand voters from the aforementioned community.
It is worth mentioning that to ensure the interests and rights of the transgender community, the State Level Transgender Cell was formed last year by the Haryana Government and responsibility of which was given to Haryana DGP Shatrujit Jeet Kapoor. The aim as well as functioning of the cell is to monitor the cases of crimes against transgenders. The government issued its notification and other members of the cell include the Additional Director General of Police, Crime against Women and Children, Director General, Social Justice Empowerment, Welfare and Antyodaya (Services) Department of SCs and BCs and two members. According to official information, the district-level cell will be headed by the concerned District Magistrate, along with the Police Commissioner/SP, District Social Welfare Officer and two members of the transgender community. The notification states that both the cells will ensure timely registration, investigation and prosecution of crimes against transgenders. There has been an increase in the cases of crimes against transgenders in the state in the last few years. Regarding this, Dhananjay Chauhan of Chandigarh had filed a petition in the High Court seeking the establishment of Transgender Protection Cells to ensure the safety of transgender people.
