The Election Commission has rejected a demand by transgenders in Maharashtra to be officially recognized as “transgenders” or “third gender” and not as “others” on electoral rolls.
The EC introduced the others column along with male and female categories in the electoral rolls for the recent Lok Sabha polls. Since then, the Supreme Court has delivered the landmark NALSA judgment, where the apex court directed governments to issue documents identifying them as transgenders.
Trans activists said the term others was dehumanizing and made them sound like furniture. They also said that the community faced problems while making passports since government officials weren’t sensitized about transgenders.