Karnataka registered a marriage involving a transgender person for the first time on Tuesday, The Hindu reported. Transgender rights activist Akkai Padmashali had married Vasudev V on January 20, 2017.

The couple said they took a year to get the marriage formalised because Vasudev was preparing documents and Padmashali was busy with other work. They got their marriage registered at the sub-registrar’s office in Bengaluru’s KR Puram, according to The Times of India.

Padmashali runs the organisation Ondede, which works on sexuality and sexual diversity. She got the Rajyotsava Award, the state’s second highest civilian honour, in 2015. “We finally applied in December, and after the required time frame of 30 days, we registered our marriage on Tuesday,” Padmashali said. “It is a big thing to be registered under and recognised by a government body.”

The government should frame schemes to support transgenders’ marriage, Padmashali added.

Vasudev, who runs a laundry business, said: “I met Akkai in 2011 when we were working as LGBTQI+ activists with different organisations. We don’t see her as a transwoman, but as a woman.”

In October 2017, the Karnataka Cabinet had cleared the State Policy for Transgenders, to bring the community into the mainstream and safeguard them from exploitation. The policy, drafted in compliance with a Supreme Court order, suggested reservations for transgender students, recognised different categories of transgenders and sensitisation programmes.