As the world’s largest democracy, India takes election time seriously. And electoral authorities have just changed the ballots to include a gender ‘other’ than male and female.

India’s eunuch community experienced a win yesterday, after being granted the option to tick ‘Other’ on ballot forms, instead of ‘male’ or ‘female’.

“Enumerators and booth-level officers (BLOs) shall be instructed to indicate the sex of eunuchs/transsexuals etc as ‘O’ if they so desire, while undertaking any house-to-house enumeration/verification of any application,” read a statement from election authorities.

India also decriminalised gay sex in July. While the decision is being challenged in the country’s high court, it was a landmark decision for the gay rights movement.

With a population of over 1 billion, India has over 700 million registered voters.

Commenting on the electoral commission’s decision, election commissioner S Y Qureishi told The Times of India, “Why should a section of the population be left out? The decision will help in mainstreaming a section of the population. I am sure even government would like to do the same.”