In UP's Gonda, transgenders to help spread poll awareness

Noida: In a novel experiment, the Gonda administration in Uttar Pradesh would be engaging the transgender community to encourage people of the district, that has registered a low polling percentage in the past, to cast their vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

Located around 120 km from the state capital Lucknow, Gonda has 25.30 lakh registered voters and among those 13.50 lakh are males, 11.82 lakh females and 94 from the third gender. It goes to polls on May 20 in the fifth phase of the general elections.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the constituency had 17.70 lakh electors and recorded a voter turnout of 52.2 per cent, much below the state's average of 59.21 per cent. In 2014, it had 17.10 lakh electors and a 51.08 per cent voter turnout, which also was lower than the state's average of 58.44 per cent. In 2009, Gonda had 13.41 lakh electors and a voter turnout of 45.11 per cent.

To increase voter turnout in 2024, District Magistrate Neha Sharma on March 31 held a meeting with members of the transgender community. In addition to 22 representatives of the community, senior officers of the district, including those from the police, participated in the meeting.

Buoyed by the idea, the transgenders are busy composing catchy songs while looking forward to holding street plays in the hopes of leveraging the opportunity to raise awareness about elections and also about their community, which has remained marginalised for long.

"This is a very good initiative by the administration to engage the community (transgenders). The administration wants more voter turnout on the day of voting in the district. If we support the administration, then it will also come for our help when needed. I hope the initiative helps our community join the mainstream," Amruta Soni, 40, who led a group of transgenders at the meeting, told PTI.

"We will help the administration with raising awareness about elections and voting. During the process, we would interact with government officials too and can directly share with them inputs concerning our community.

"So the idea is for awareness about elections and voting and also about the community's issues among the officials and within the society," said Soni, who is a government officer attached to the state prison department.

When asked about the initiative, Gonda's Chief Development Officer M Arunmozhi said it is part of the administration's wider plan to reach out to transgenders, first-time voters, and persons with disabilities.

"Transgenders in Gonda are concentrated in different pockets and not in a single area. It is an inclusive approach. We started talking to them about the initiative and also about them, like what is their economic status, their health issues and their demands from the government so that in future we can involve them in policy-making also," Arunmozhi told PTI.

She said this is the first time that the district administration, led by Sharma, has reached out to transgenders for such an initiative.

Another transgender, Maahi, who works in the Katra Bazaar of Gonda, said the initiative has got her excited but also concerned about how the administration would approach the awareness programme.

"More efforts are required on the part of the authorities as well as the public to increase the voter turnout," the 26-year-old Maahi told PTI.

Soni said the community members have requested the district administration to provide them with material for information, communication and education (ICE) related to the subject.

"Once we get it, we'll get on the job. We can perform 'nukkad natak', go around singing songs to raise awareness about the significance of voting during elections," Soni said.

"However, we have made this clear that we are not going to engage in publicity for any political party during the awareness campaign. We were asked by some people that political parties or candidates may also approach us for work, but we made it clear that is not going to happen," Soni added.

Gonda's Superintendent of Police Vineet Jaiswal, who also attended the administration's meeting with the transgenders on election awareness, said the interaction also brought to the fore several issues that the community is grappling with, be it health, or government schemes like housing.

"There is more sensitisation required at various levels to bring the community into the mainstream of development," Jaiswal told PTI.