Delhi : The Election Commission of India (ECI) has taken several steps to enhance voter enrollment and ensure greater participation of different sections of society in the current general elections. The total number of registered voters in India are around 96.8 crore, the ECI said last week while announcing the schedule of the 18th Lok Sabha elections.
Since the last few years, the debate over enhancing the list of voters including the third gender has gathered attention and the result of this is that in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, as many as 46,350 third-gender voters will participate in the festival of democracy, a spike of nearly 17% as compared to 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The highest number of third-gender voters are from Tamil Nadu (8,294) followed by 7,705 in Uttar Pradesh, 5,492 in Maharashtra, 4,920 in Karnataka, 3,482 in Andhra Pradesh, 3,380 in Odisha and others.
Union Territories of Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu and the state of Mizoram registered 0 third gender voters.
During the previous Lok Sabha election in 2019, according to the election commission as many as 39,683 third genders were enrolled in the voters list.
Back then, Uttar Pradesh bagged the top spot with 8,274 third gender voters followed by 5,461 in Tamil Nadu, 4,711 in Karnataka, 2,932 in Odisha, 2,406 in Bihar and others.
"Enrolment of transgenders in the electoral rolls and motivating them to participate in the electoral process has been a huge challenge for the Election Commission. Numerous measures have been adopted to spread awareness among the transgenders, resulting in an increase in the number of third gender electors," read the poll panel's report on the 2019 general elections.
The polls for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases, starting with voting for 102 seats in the first phase on April 19. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.
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