Strokes of change: Colourful murals by transwomen on voter awareness adorn walls at CEO’s office
The Hindu
Colourful murals by the Aravani Art Project, an art collaborative, depicting an election scenario at a polling station, the process of voting, people getting inked or a person being assisted to reach a polling station adorn the walls of the CEO’s office in Bengaluru.
Amid the hectic election work going on at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Karnataka in Bengaluru, a group of transwomen are silently doing their bit to create awareness about voting.
Shanti, engrossed in painting a sketch on the theme “Of the people, for the people and by the people” on the main wall in the quadrangle of the CEO’s office, is part of the Aravani Art Project, an art collective founded by Poornima Sukumar, a multi-disciplinary artist. The collective is run by trans and cis women.
Colourful murals depicting an election scenario at a polling station, the process of voting, people getting inked or a person being assisted to reach a polling station adorn the walls of the CEO’s office.
The murals are based on the theme ‘democracy’. The idea is to create awareness about voting and to drive home the message that it is the right of every citizen to exercise his/her franchise.
“The wall that we are painting depicts people from different walks of life who have the right to vote, the power of change in voting, how important it is to be the person bringing about the change and the freedom to choose while you vote. Our murals symbolise the power of ‘of the people, by the people and for the people,” said Rajeshwari, another artiste.
Nandini, a cis woman, who is also part of Aravani, said another important aspect the art collective wanted to showcase was the importance of transgender votes.
According to data, transgender voters have increased from 4,552 in 2018 to 42,756 in 2023 in Karnataka. While a mere 9.8% of 4,552 enrolled transgenders voted in the 2018 Assembly elections, 11.49% of the registered 4,839 transgenders turned up to vote in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
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