In a continued effort to empower the transgenders, the Delhi University has introduced an option of ‘˜third gender’ in the admission forms for all the post graduate programmes.
Earlier this year when the Supreme Court had acknowledged the transgenders to be referred as third gender, a new page in the history of the country was written.
In a continued effort to empower the transgenders, the Delhi University has introduced an option of ‘third gender’ in the admission forms for all the post graduate programmes.
Inking a new chapter, the university gives the suffered community a chance to get recognized by the rest. The unhinged lot has struggled and demanded a recognition in areas like education for a long time now. Enrollments for undergraduate program will commence from the next academic year.
The approximate population of the transgender community in India is as much as 4.93 lakhs, as per census of 2011. And from among this population, a huge percentage is denied acceptance into universities or educational institutions, because they do not belong to either of the two mentioned categories.
The LGBT groups and activists across the country have welcomed the move and acknowledged Delhi University as an inspiration for other educational institutes. It comes as a follow-up to the notification sent by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to universities and colleges to introduce ‘third gender’ as a category in the admission forms. However, the commission has still not decided about the benefits available to the category, once they are admitted to a separate category.
The activists feel that awareness building among students and teachers, with the support of Supreme Court’s decision, led to a move like this. Apart from enrollments in PG and UG programmes, a provision for the inclusion of ‘Third gender’ in teacher recruitment form has also been proposed. Not only does this step signal a healthy relationship, but also gives them an equal employment opportunity as the others.
Though Delhi University is seen as a inspiration, Bangalore university allowed the inclusion of ‘third gender’ in admission forms back in 2010.
They have suffered for a long time now, with no fault of their own. And why should they be denied the right to be educated?
While we wait and see the effects of this move in the university, we at the same time expect other universities and educational organizations to get inspired by this move and stop discriminating on the basis of caste, creed, gender, religion or sexuality.
