DHAKA: Bharathi Kannamma, a 53-years-old Indian transgender is campaigning in her southern hometown for a seat in parliament, reports the Dawn.

They said, ‘with a tight budget and a humble auto-rickshaw, the pioneering Indian transgender wants seat at Lok Sabha just days after the country’s highest court recognised “third gender” people.

Describing the Supreme Court judge’s ruling as a milestone, Bharathi Kannamma hopes to build on the momentum and overturn prejudices against India’s several million transgenders.

Running as an independent candidate in the city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu state, she is thought to be the first transgender accepted as a candidate in a general election.

“Even when people come to see me talk, they have certain set notions,” said the social activist ahead of Madurai’s polling day on Thursday, in the phased general election that winds up in mid-May.

“It is only when they hear what I have to say and see me in person that they can get past the fact that I am a transgender,” she said.

In the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, the judge said a person can be legally recognised as gender-neutral, and transgenders should be included in government welfare schemes offered to other minority groups.

Often known as “hijras” in South Asia, transgenders are classified as people who have had sex change operations or who regard themselves as the opposite of their born gender. They often live on the extreme fringes of India’s culturally conservative society, sometimes falling into prostitution and begging.

BDST: 1855 HRS, APR 21, 2014