Maharashtra EC official gets national award for encouraging prostitutes, third gender to enrol

Shirish Mohod, an election commission (EC) official posted in Maharashtra, has been selected for the national award by the commission for doing the best work in enrolling the third gender and prostitutes in electoral rolls along with encouraging them to cast their vote.

Mohod is the deputy chief electoral officer of the state and also the convener of the Sweep programme in Maharashtra. His work in 2015 under the voter-enrollment campaign "sweep" has been recognized by the Election Commission as best in India.

"In 2014, there were only 200 people from the third gender and prostitutes on the electoral rolls of Maharashtra. With Mohod's consistent efforts through an NGO, the enrolment has now gone up to over 1,018 within a year," read the letter issued by the Maharashtra Information Centre on Tuesday.

The award would be conferred to him at a special ceremony to be held in Delhi on January 25 by the President.