Other city-based institutes like GNLU, NID, MICA too will include transgenders from the 2015 batch
Breaking free of the shackles of heteronormativity, premier B-schools of India, the Indian Institutes of Management have decided to open doors to the sexual minorities in India. Probably, after the Supreme Court landmark judgment to consider them as 'third gender', the relentless battle of many years to get identity and recognition, finally got its trophy in this decision.
The IIMs' decision has opened doors to newer opportunities for them, including admission to some of the seats of higher learning, including top design and law institutes in India. And taking the first step in that direction, the management schools have decided to include transgender in the registration stage for Common Admission Test (CAT) – the gateway to the IIMs – with notification for 2014 exams getting out in July this year.
And IIMs are not the only academic institutes that have decided to embrace transgender for their 2015 batch. Following in their footsteps are other city-based academic institutes like Gujarat National Law University, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, NID and MICA is also set to include them in admission for 2015.
Officials in the admission office of CAT coordinating institute, the Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIM-I) said that the decision to include transgender in the admission process for batch commencing in 2015 has been taken in principle. The official declaration of this landmark decision will be made after the next CAT committee meet. With the inclusion of third gender option now apart from male and female categories in the online registration for CAT-2014 which opens this year, the transgenders will also be able to mark their preferred IIMs, like other candidates. Confirming the news, in charge of the admission process for 2015 batch and a member of CAT committee, prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay of IIM- Ahmedabad (IIMA) said: “The CAT group has already decided to keep provision for marking transgender at the CAT registration stage. The decision about the detailed reservation policy will be made once the directives from Ministry of Human Resource of Development are received,” he said.
He further said that though the CAT committee has already decided to implement the SC judgment, details of the new category will be finalised soon.
As transgender are included in the 'Other Backward Class', officials suggest that they might be given admission in the 27% reservation quota for the OBC. However, the next CAT committee meeting will discuss and finalise details of their inclusion in depth, the official added.
dna's mail to IIM-I faculty, prof Rohit Kapoor and incharge of the CAT-2014 still awaits a response.
While institutes like IIMs, GNLU, MICA has already completed admission for their 2014 batches, varsities that are yet to start admission process like CEPT University have chosen to include third gender from their new batch.
“As this is a apex court judgment, we will include transgender in the admission for 2015. This year as we have completed the process, we will not be able to abide by the judgment,” said V-C of GNLU, Bimal Patel.
Similarly, spokesperson at MICA said that the institute’s authorities will discuss the SC ruling and its implications for private unaided institutes like thiers and take appropriate decisions well ahead of the admission notification for 2015 batch. “In the admissions so far, MICA has welcomed applicants from all genders and demographic profiles and believed in equal opportunity for all,” the spokesperson said.
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