Members of Bangladesh’s transgender community gather to participate at a campaign titled, ‘Open Air (Khola Haowa),’ in different areas of Dhaka University on November 11, 2018 Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

In the aftermath of the parliamentary elections, nominations for the reserved seats for women are being sought after, with some pleasantly surprising candidates.

Awami League Deputy Office Secretary Biplob Barua have confirmed that eight members of the transgender community have filed their nominations with the party.

Arifa Yasmin Moyuri, one of the aspirants, had led a transgender delegation in September 2018 to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to thank her for removing socio-economic barriers to the community.

Transgenders buying nomination forms at the Awami League president’s office in Dhanmondi on January 16, 2019 | Dhaka Tribune

Moyuri is the president of “Siri Samaj Kalyan Sangstha”, a transgender welfare organization based in Jamalpur.

Falguni, another aspirant, said: “We are citizens of Bangladesh but we have no representation in the parliament. There is no one from our community who can understand and raise our concerns. That is why we are running for the seats.”

Bangladesh’s transgender community, colloquially referred as “hijra,” had been neglected for decades. An estimated 10,000 to half a million – of Bangladesh’s population of about 160 million – belong to the hijra community.

The Awami League government has made great strides in improving the living and working conditions of the transgender community through numerous causes and actions. The third gender is acknowledged in all government official documentation and they are provided with equal opportunities. The competition to be elected to the parliament is but the latest step.

The MPs elected to the parliament during the polls will vote among themselves to elect the 50 reserved MPs on February 17.

Awami League will nominate to 43 seats, the Jatiya Party will seat four, BNP will seat one, and independent coalitions will seat two.

On March 30, 2015, Labannya Hijra witnessed the murder of secular blogger Washikur Rahman, by Islamist radicals, on a Dhaka street. Labannya accosted the attackers and her courageous intervention led to the arrest of two men—who later confessed to the killing.

After Labannya’s heroic actions, the government announced plans to recruit hijras as traffic police— a move welcomed widely. Furthermore, the central bank instructed financial institutions to spend a portion of their corporate social responsibility funds for the welfare of the transgender community.

Courtesy: https://www.dhakatribune.com/
 

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Image Courtesy: Facebook/Chandramukhi Muvvala
 
Hyderabad: The lone transwoman candidate in Telangana Assembly polls, who had gone missing on Nov 27, turned up at a police station in Hyderabad on Wednesday night. Trans activist and MLA candidate Chandramukhi Muvvala was said to be in a dazed and confused state. She is a candidate from the Bahujan Left Front fighting from the Goshamahal constituency.
 
She reached the Banjara Hills police station on Wednesday with her lawyer and some members of the transgender community. She refused to give a statement to police about her whereabouts, saying she will reveal all the details in court on Thursday.
 
The Hyderabad High Court had on Wednesday directed the police to produce her in the court on Thursday.
 
“The court passed orders on a habeas corpus (unlawful detention) petitioned filed by Chandramukhi’s mother Ananthamma. Earlier, a missing case was registered at the Banjara Hills police station on a complaint by her mother. According to her supporters, two persons had come to meet her. Later, her mobile phone was switched off. They claimed she had been kidnapped,” NDTV reported.
 
“However, after examining CCTV footage, police said on Wednesday that she left the house on her own and was seen walking alone. A police official said she had masked her face to hide her identity. Police had formed 10 teams to trace the missing candidate. A few teams were also deputed to Anantapur and other districts in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh,” the report said.
 
Chandramukhi’s mother, Anitha Muvvala told TNM that the woman on the CCTV footage was not her daughter.
 
“She has come back. She was abducted by someone and intimidated severely, she’s dazed and disoriented. She’ll share what happened to her before the court,” Vasudha Nagaraj, her lawyer, told TNM.
 
“In Goshamahal, all the candidates contesting against her have a criminal past and we suspect that someone might be behind her abduction. Despite such a big incident, all the parties have maintained a studious silence, as if nothing has happened. So, we are planning for a state-wide agitation on Thursday, if police don’t find Chandramukhi,” BLF convenor Tammineni Veerabhadram had told TNM a day earlier. On Tuesday, the Bahujan Left Front had warned of a statewide agitation if Muvvala was not found within 24 hours.
 
BLF leaders and activists alleged that people who were opposed to a transgender woman contesting the election were behind her disappearance.
 
Chandramukhi is the only transgender candidate out of 3,584 candidates contesting in the upcoming Telangana elections on December 7.
 
Chandramukhi, a well-known face in Hyderabad’s trans community, is contesting from the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad on a Bahujan Left Front (BLF) ticket. She will be taking on bigwigs such as the BJP’s Raja Singh, Congress’ Mukesh Goud and TRS’s Prem Singh Rathore.
 
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Chandramukhi: the only transwoman contesting the upcoming Telangana polls

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Chandramukhi Muvvala, a trans woman who is contesting the upcoming Telangana polls, has gone missing. She reportedly went missing early morning at 8.25 am on Nov 27, according to the FIR filed over the missing person’s complaint. The police said that they are reviewing the CCTV footage.
 
“She went to sleep at 5 am and asked someone to wake her up at 7 am. The last call she received was at 8.17 am, and her phone was switched off somewhere at Yaramanzil Colony, 2-3 km from her residence in Banjara Hills. She was noticed missing since 8.25 am and the door of her house is locked from the outside,” the Banjara Hills SHO said in a report by The News Minute.
 
Chandramukhi, a well-known face in Hyderabad’s trans community, is contesting from the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad on a Bahujan Left Front (BLF) ticket. She will be taking on bigwigs such as the BJP’s Raja Singh, Congress’ Mukesh Goud and TRS’s Prem Singh Rathore.
 
“Vinu, who is tasked with the campaign schedule told the press that Chandramukhi would inform him where she was going, and who she is meeting. “We approached the police only at 2.30 pm. We waited, hoping she would come back by then,” he said. Vinu also alleged that a person who was found lurking around her house in the CCTV footage could be involved in her disappearance. “A white SUV came to the premises at 7.58 am. A person could be seen in the video looking or searching, either for someone or for a location. We suspect that this person is somehow linked to her disappearance,” he said in the TNM report.
 
Anitha Muvvala, Chandramukhi’s mother said that she last spoke to her daughter between 8 and 9 pm on Monday. “We talked about how the campaign was going and she told me she was happy with the way things were progressing,” Anitha said in the report.
 
“We fear for her safety and condemn the lack of safety measures organized for her and for other women and transgender candidates, which acts as a strong force that dissuades transgender persons and women from joining politics. Chandramukhi’s campaign kicked off just one day before she went missing,” a press release of the Telangana Hijra Trans Samiti said.
 
The Goshamahal area suffers from civic issues, for which locals blame the incumbent BJP MLA Raja Singh, and local issues are what Chandramukhi aims to give her attention to, a report said.
 
Chandramukhi is the only transgender candidate out of 3,584 candidates contesting in the upcoming Telangana elections on December 7. 

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Chandramukhi: the only transwoman contesting the upcoming Telangana polls

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Hyderabad: “No Mahabharat without Sikhandi, no Legislature without Transgender,” says 32-year-old Chandramukhi Muvvala, possibly the first transwoman to contest in the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections on a party ticket.
 
Even after the landmark Sec 377 judgement, trans representation in the legislature is dismal. There were transgender nominations in the past but all of those were as independent candidates. This is the first time in Telangana a party has given a ticket to a tans-woman.
 
While everyone in Telangana is busy looking at the stiff competition between the incumbent TRS and the Prajakutami led by Congress, she filed her nomination on Nov 19. Chandramukhi is contesting on a CPM-led Bahujan Left Front or BLF ticket from Goshamahal constituency.
 
Out of the total of 3,584 candidates that filed their nomination for the upcoming polls, she is the only candidate representing the transgender community.
 
A TV artist and Bharatnatyam dancer, she is pitted against former minister and senior Congress leader Mukesh Goud and controversial BJP leader T Raja Singh in the constituency.
 
“We have been subjected to exploitation and there was no one in lawmaking bodies to represent us, now it’s time to change it,” said Chandramukhi. She said that her main agenda if elected would be to represent the transgender community in the legislature and to curb the issue of child labour in the constituency. “It is the first step in making our voice heard, and we will use it to the last extent” she adds. She said that they go to slums, they sit and eat with the people in those slums and they all have been very sweet to the community. She says that she draws confidence from the immense support she receives from within and outside the community.
 
“While the seed to do something related to politics was planted four years ago, Chandramukhi didn’t think she would actually run for MLA, but only that she would canvass for and promote a party. “I thought I’ll canvass for some party and I’ll make my work, words, or a member of my community a part of it. But I got a BLF ticket and my entire community was happy. It is the first time in both the Telugu states that a member of the trans community has got a ticket from a party,” she said in a report by The News Minute.
 
The area suffers from civic issues, for which locals blame the incumbent BJP MLA Raja Singh, and local issues are what Chandramukhi aims to give her attention to, the report said.
 
“I’m transgender and I never said that I’ll only work for trans people. I have been part of women’s issues, children’s rights and in Goshamahal, I have seen a lot of child labour. I want to curb child labour. Education must be good in this constituency,” she added in a report.
 
“Senior members of the trans community have settled in Goshamahal. The area is very friendly to the community because all women know transgender persons and we know what they do daily. People from the Marwadi community used to take blessings from us and it’s a good thing for us. They ask for us blessings and even we need their support. We give blessings regularly – for whatever function that happens in the families we go, bless them and dance – that kind of friendly relationship exists with the people of Goshamahal constituency,” she said.
 
“People who live in the slums have always been friendly with us because we also belong to the slum. We are with the slum, working with them and eating with them. So, I thought that Goshamahal will be the best place to contest.”
 
Telugu states have not executed any substantial reformative measures for the transgender community unlike their counterparts in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Although there is a sizeable population of the community in the state, there isn’t much being done for their upliftment.
 
“Regardless of whether she wins or loses, Chandramukhi says that efforts will be on for one thing – the implementation of the 2014 Supreme Court judgement in the National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, known as the NALSA judgement. “The NALSA judgement should be implemented, and I’ll put my heart and soul into it. When it is implemented, Telangana’s trans community will get whatever they need. I’ll do as much as I can to ensure that each point of it is implemented,” said Chandramukhi in the report.
 
Chandramukhi was born Rajesh Muvvala took and underwent a sex change surgery ten to 15 years ago.
 
Hyderabad has about 2,700 odd registered transgender voters.
 

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