In a welcome move for the transgender community, Delhi University added the option of ‘third gender’ to its admission forms, in 2015. Hailed as progressive, even three years later, DU had failed to register even a single admission under the said gender category, in any of the 90 colleges under its ambit. In 2018, the university initiated the ‘Transgender Resource Centre’ in order to expedite the process. However, even that was in vain.
To break the inertia, the university this year has decided to reach out directly to the stakeholders in the process.
“This year, we will reach out to them in their neighbourhoods. We have started looking for their addresses and will organize camps. We will try to give them admission related information and persuade them to join regular classes,” a professor at DU told a national media house.
An upside of this, however, shall be dispelling the myths about the transgender community and providing them with an institutional backing to get included in the mainstream academic spaces. It shall encourage troubleshooting by direct interaction with the stakeholders.
While a move as this will certainly be helpful in interacting with the community in question, the inescapable heteronormativity in our institutions seems to be the biggest blockade in the realization of an inclusive educational space.
Students from the transgender community expose their identity as soon as they tick the ‘third gender’ in the admission forms. What follows is a recurring cycle of taunts, ridicule and torture aimed at their collective identities. As a result, students choose to enroll at the School of Open Learning, in distance learning courses where their identities stay anonymous.
Another major disadvantage is of the hoopla of changing names and gender status in the records of the university. According to the existing rules, a student needs to change their name in the school records before changing it in the university. Consequently, the Delhi High Court, acting on a petition by a former transgender student, directed DU and CBSE to discuss the possibility of changing names in educational records.
However, a breakthrough is yet to be achieved. The students from the transgender community also face problems in enrolling themselves in all women colleges, as they can only gain admission in co-ed colleges identifying as the ‘third gender.’
Cases of sexual harassment against the community are also on the rise. However, in 2018, on the petition of a transgender student, a judgment was passed stating that the Section 354A of the IPC can now be used to register cases of sexual harassment against transgender individuals. Hailed as a breakthrough ruling, it needs to be corroborated with appropriate behavioural standards by the students and faculty members towards the people from the community. A gender sensitization program for both the students as well as the faculty members might go a long way in the realization of an inclusive academic circle in the diverse nation.
The move of organizing camps, to reach out directly to transgender students by DU is commendable, also because it sends out a message to the larger circle. When an elite and ranked university tries to make education inclusive by ground efforts rather than only theorizing and policing about them, it is a clarion call to other educational institutions to follow suit. It shall also ensure social security to the transgender community, who so far, have been subject to humiliation and derogatory terms in general parlance, because of their identity.
Apart from this, innovative and inclusive methods such as financial help, reservation in educational institutes in a separate category may go a long way in eradicating this menace of low admissions. To add to this, the NCERT may also make necessary changes in the curriculum to sensitize the students on gender identity, and queerness as well. Inclusion of elementary sociology as a compulsory subject might help as well.
While the realization of an inclusive educational and intellectual space is far from reality, welcome steps such as that of the DU to reach out to students directly will go a long way in securing the trust of the community. Coupled with real motive, and ground measures such as those stated above, India can surely look to reflecting the diversity it’s well known for, in educational spheres as well.
Featured image for representative purpose only.
Featured image source: Express photo by Abhinav Saha.
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