Ranchi: Rajkumari Kinnar made history as she filed nominations for the post of mukhiya from Ritudih village, Bokaro district, Chas block for the 2022 Jharkhand panchayat elections but her joy was shortlived after she found that she did not have a category.
While the trans community has been acknowledged by the government as “third gender” in the voter list, the panchayat nomination form does not have a category allotted for it.
State election commission secretary Radhe Shyam Prasad said the nomination format is decided by the central authorities and is not under the state election commission. “Other reserved categories are mentioned on the nomination form and because the number of trans candidates is very few, it is impractical and inconvenient to add another category. Nominees from the third gender file their nominations under the ‘others’ category along with men and those under the general category,” he said.
The first trans person to get admission to Ranchi University, Sumira, said it’s undignifying for the trans community not to be recognised by the Election Commission. “This is yet another exclusionary and tone deaf behaviour of the government and EC to overlook the trans community. Why do we not deserve the recognition of our identity as well as reservations? Our community has been historically, politically and economically deprived of justice and equal treatment, we deserve reservations as much as anyone else.”
While the trans community has been acknowledged by the government as “third gender” in the voter list, the panchayat nomination form does not have a category allotted for it.
State election commission secretary Radhe Shyam Prasad said the nomination format is decided by the central authorities and is not under the state election commission. “Other reserved categories are mentioned on the nomination form and because the number of trans candidates is very few, it is impractical and inconvenient to add another category. Nominees from the third gender file their nominations under the ‘others’ category along with men and those under the general category,” he said.
The first trans person to get admission to Ranchi University, Sumira, said it’s undignifying for the trans community not to be recognised by the Election Commission. “This is yet another exclusionary and tone deaf behaviour of the government and EC to overlook the trans community. Why do we not deserve the recognition of our identity as well as reservations? Our community has been historically, politically and economically deprived of justice and equal treatment, we deserve reservations as much as anyone else.”