| 
|
Indian election authorities Thursday granted what they called an independent identity to intersex and transsexuals in the country's voter lists. Before, members of these groups -- loosely called eunuchs in Indian English -- were referred to as male or female in the voter rolls. But now, they will have the choice to tick "O" -- for others -- when indicating their gender in voter forms, the Indian election commission said in a statement. "Enumerators and booth-level officers (BLOs) shall be instructed to indicate the sex of eunuchs/transsexuals etc as 'O' if they so desire, while undertaking any house-to-house enumeration/verification of any application," a statement from election authorities said. India, home to more than 1 billion people, has 714 million registered voters. Intersexual people are seen as a marginalized community in India. Many end up begging on the streets, becoming prostitutes or earning their livelihood by dancing at celebrations. In July, an Indian court delivered a landmark ruling legalizing gay sex between consenting partners in the country. The July verdict meant the law -- Indian penal code section 377, which had previously criminalized consensual homosexual acts between adults -- was partly struck down but remains in place as far as forced homosexual acts are concerned. It was not clear whether the ruling -- which was later challenged by an astrologer in India's highest court -- would eventually lead to legalization of gay marriages in the country. CNN, November 12, 2009
__._,_.___
To post your articles, write-up, issues for public discussions, documentary video and public event invitations at The National Forum of India (NFI) websites, simply send it to national-forum-of-india@yahoogroups.com. No sign-up required. Visit now @ http://india.ozg.in
- Regional Music and Movies Website -
http://Arunachali.ozg.in http://Assamese.ozg.in http://Bengali.ozg.in
http://Bhojpuri.ozg.in http://Chhattisgarhi.ozg.in
http://Gujarati.ozg.in http://Kannada.ozg.in http://Haryanavi.ozg.in http://Himachali.ozg.in http://Jharkhandi.ozg.in
http://Kashmiri.ozg.in http://Malayalam.ozg.in http://Konkani.ozg.in http://Maithili.ozg.in http://Manipuri.ozg.in
http://Marathi.ozg.in http://Oriya.ozg.in http://Punjabi.ozg.in http://Santali.ozg.in http://Kurukh.ozg.in
http://Mizo.ozg.in http://Tamil.ozg.in http://Telugu.ozg.in http://Rajasthani.ozg.in http://Uttarakhandi.ozg.in
__,_._,___ |