The fifth phase of West Bengal assembly polls on 30 April will be a watershed for the third gender community. For the first time one of them has been made presiding officer for a booth in South Kolkata.
We are calling it the transgender booth because Riya Sarkar, a transgender, will be the presiding officer at a polling booth. She will now be part of history of the inclusion of the transgender community into mainstream society.Smita Pandey, District Electoral Officer
Riya Sarkar, the transwoman, will be posted at one of the booths at South City International School which falls in Rashbehari assembly constituency. A history teacher at Dum Dum Prachaya Bani Mandir for Boys school, she was born as Pankaj Sarkar and went for a sex realignment surgery in 2014.
It is a big honour not only for me but for the entire transgender community. I am very happy and proud on being given this task by the Election CommissionRiya Sarkar
She has been given training for handling the booth and tackling other presiding officers. Amitjyoti Bhattacharya, deputy chief electoral officer said all sections of society are being encouraged to be part of the electoral process. “When it comes to us, there is no discrimination at all anywhere.”
Pandey, who was earlier part of West Bengal Transgender Development Board, said the initiative is a message for the entire community to come out and disclose their identity in public.
It’s just that they’re not getting enough opportunities. This inclusion in polling process will be a part of their social engineering experience.Smita Pandey, District Electoral Officer
Sarkar said she used to face discrimination on part of the fellow teachers at the school, where she has been teaching for the past few years. “I hope it gets buried in the past,” she said.
Ranjita Sinha, who leads Association of Transgender/Hijra in Bengal (ATHB), welcomed the EC’s step and said it would help empower the community. Out of the 6.5 crore voters in West Bengal, the number of voters from the third gender is a nominal 758.
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