The University's Department of Adult, Continuing Education, and Extension will rope in NGOs for advice on setting up help-desks in a more "sensitive manner".
To make the campus more inclusive for third gender aspirants, Delhi University (DU) will organise special counselling sessions and set-up personal help desks for them during the upcoming admission session. The move is significant as not even a single student from the third gender has enrolled ever since the category was added in admission forms in 2015.
The University's Department of Adult, Continuing Education, and Extension will rope in NGOs for advice on setting up help-desks in a more "sensitive manner".
"Every year, we receive applications from third gender students, but no one joins regular college. Most prefer DU's School of Open Learning (SOL)," said Professor Rajesh. "This time, we are going to create more inclusive atmosphere so that they feel comfortable and come forward to seek answers of their admission-related queries."
Besides, there will also be a 'Third Gender Resource Centre' for career counseling. "It's very important to bring these students into the mainstream education system," says Rajesh, who was part of the 2013 Union Ministry of Social Justice's committee to look at issues related to transgender education. "This centre will be a platform for dispensing information on higher education."
The department is also organising awareness campaigns in colleges to encourage students and faculty members to create welcoming environment at the campuses.
"We have also identified some areas where prospective aspirants may live and will soon start house-to-house counselling there," said Aslam, a PhD scholar.
Several third-gender students, enrolled in the Distance Learning programme, cited lack of sensitivity among students and faculty members as the reason for not opting for regular education. "Neither students nor teachers are sensitive to our issues and problems," said Rehana, a final year BA student at SOL and activist.
The 27-year-old says there is an urgent need to overhaul University policies to encourage more third-gender students to join regular education. "University's policy on name change is the main obstacle," she says. "I have been requesting the administration to change my name in my mark-sheets so that it can also appear in the degree I'll receive. But, they say it needs to be changed at he school level first."
Recently, a transgender student had moved Delhi High Court challenging DU and CBSE policies of name-change.
Fair Change
The university will organise special counselling sessions and set-up personal help desks for the third gender during the upcoming admission session.
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