Transgenders will be allowed to have a separate third identity on electoral rolls, Chief Election Commissioner Navin B. Chawla said here Monday.
“We examined the request in depth and permitted transgenders to register as 'Other' or 'O',” Chawla said while delivering the second annual Mother Teresa Memorial lecture on 'Electoral Democracy in India'.
He said the Election Commission had also revised the format of the electoral rolls accordingly.
“Besides, relevant forms used by the Commission wherein there is a provision of indication of sex of the elector have been suitably amended,” added Chawla.
Instructions, he said, had been sent out to all electoral registration authorities in the country to immediately implement the decision.
The lecture was jointly organised by the Indira Gandhi National Open University and Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil of Catholic Bishops' Conference of India.