Data Dive: Tamil Nadu Has Highest Share of Third Gender Population on Electoral Roll
The state has almost 30% of its transgender population on the voters' list and it also tops in the gender's representation in total electoral roll
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Tamil Nadu has almost 30% of its transgender population on electoral roll, which is the highest in the country. The state also topped in the percentage of third gender representation (0.0106%) among the state's total 6.10 crore electors in 2020, showed Election Commission of India's (ECI) data.
The theme of this year's National Voters' Day, which is celebrated on January 25, is 'Making Elections Inclusive, Accessible and Participative'. So, FactChecker looked at the country's electoral data for the last five years (2016-2020) to see how well is the "third gender" represented in the voter's list.
The ECI released the latest national electoral roll data in 2020. Since then, updated numbers of poll-bound states have been published but as those aren't comparable with the entire country, the national data till 2020 has been used here for analysis.
Despite an estimated population of 4.8 million, only 8.45% or 41,231 transgenders have enrolled in the electoral process. While their representation in the country's electoral roll is not even one per cent, it has increased to 0.0045% in 2020 from 0.0036% in 2016. This means that while in 2016, of the total electoral roll of 85.72 crore, the transgender electors were 31,203, in 2020 this increased to 41,231 in the total electoral roll of 91.97 crore.
The DMK-governed state had 28.9% or 6,476 of the transgender population on the voters' list in 2020, followed by Karnataka (23.24% or 4,709) and Odisha (14.71% or 2,990). While Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of transgender individuals on its electoral rolls — 7,677 — the percentage share of the total population of people with non-binary gender identities enrolled in the state is still quite low — 5.58%.
Among Union Territories, Puducherry has the highest percentage of transgender population on electoral roll (39.29%), followed by Andaman & Nicobar Islands (25.53%) and Delhi (19.34%).
Third gender electors don't even constitute one per cent of any state's total electoral roll. Tamil Nadu fared on top in 2020 with 0.0106% of state's voter list being transgender individuals, followed by Andhra Pradesh (0.0102%) and Odisha (0.0092%). Five years before this, in 2016, while Tamil Nadu stood fifth in representation of third gender electors, Karnataka topped the list with people with non-binary gender identities constituting 0.0089% of the state's voter list. It was followed by Andhra Pradesh (0.0085%) and Telangana (0.0083%).