Earlier this month, Rayyan Monkey, a trans woman who lives in Mumbai, received a visit from the booth level officer of Worli. The special intensive revision of electoral rolls had kicked off in Maharashtra just a few days earlier, and the officer was overseeing the process in Rayyan’s locality.

After checking the records, however, the officer informed Rayyan that there was a problem: she could not be “mapped” to the electoral roll. That is, her name was not on the roll prepared after the last revision in 2002 – unsurprising, since Rayyan was a child then. Neither were the officer or Rayyan able to find her immediate family’s names on the earlier roll, which could have helped ensure her inclusion in the revised roll.

There was a specific reason for this difficulty. Around four years ago, when Rayyan embraced her trans identity, she had to sever ties with her family, who were not accepting of her. They moved abroad some time after. This estrangement has placed obstacles in the way of Rayyan ensuring she is enrolled as a voter.

Since her parents are not on the 2002 rolls, she would have to prove her links to other family members, such as her grandparents, to complete the...

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