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Living as a transgender woman in Ahmedabad is hard, says Kumkum Kamini Pavaiya. “We can’t even open bank accounts since we do not have valid documents. Now that we have legally been accepted as third gender, please accept us completely for us to lead life as normal citizens,” she says.
Kumkum alleges that she isn’t allowed to vote.
Mina Patel, a 38-year-old cattle-rearer based in Surat, has been a part of a ‘sakhi mandal’ in Surat for some years now. Patel helps support women whose husbands are alcoholics. Despite prohibition, liquor continues to be sold and consumed in Gujarat. “We’ve seen so many men die because of liquor consumption. There are women who come to us for support, but they are beaten up by their husbands when they go home. Even the police and politicians do nothing about it,” she says.
Talking about the anger brewing up among traders in Surat due to GST, 43-year-old Ganesh Jain says “the anger of middle-class businessmen could turn them against the BJP.”
Jain adds that the businessmen who supported the BJP in all its decisions, now feel cheated since the party “did not think about them.”
Haridas Chunela, 45, wants fishermen like him to get benefits and subsidies like farmers do. That, he says, will make their lives easier.
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