Five years after receiving official recognition, Bangladesh’s ‘Hijras’ or eunuchs will be able to sign up as voters as citizens with their own gender identity.
The Election Commission (EC) has added ‘Hijra’ to the ‘gender identity’ section of the voter list form as it gears up to update the electoral roll through house-to-house survey between Apr 23 and May 13.
“We have added the option in the form. But Hijras can enlist as male or female if they want to. It’s totally up to them,” EC Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed said on Tuesday (Apr 7).
In January last year, the EC announced that it has decided to add Hijra’s as gender identity which became official during the Commission’s 32nd meeting in July the same year.
However, the voter registration for had not been updated until now as the electoral roll has not been updated since then.
Officials say, they Commission has already received the government’s green light to amend the Voter List Act 2009 and the Voter List Regulations 2012 to include the gender option.
Amended paper forms for house-to-house survey will soon sent out across the country. However, the EC’s database has already included Hijra as a gender identity according to officials.
Currently, Bangladesh has over 104 million registered voters. National identity cards have been distributed to eligible voters since the start of photo voter list registration. Members of the Hijra community were previously able to register, but would be classified as ‘male’ or ‘female’ on the list.
In 2013, the government officially recognised the gender identity of Hijras and approved a policy on the matter.
The EC then attempted to add the proposed Hijra option to the 2014 voter registration forms but were unable to do so because there had been no amendment of the Voter List Act and the Voter List Regulations.
As of yet there are no statistics on the Hijra community in Bangladesh. Government estimates say there are around 10,000 Hijras living in the country, but rights groups say the number is closer to 100,000.