IGNOU Welcomes 10 More Transgender Students at Lucknow Centre
- Regional Centre of IGNOU at Lucknow welcomed 10 more transgender students.
- An awareness camp was also conducted by IGNOU regarding transgender education on July 28.
- July 31, 2017, is the last date to register for these programmes.
After welcoming its first transgender student on July 17, the Regional Centre of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at Lucknow, 10 more transgender students have been welcomed by the centre.
IGNOU has granted admission to these transgender students in different courses. An awareness camp was also conducted by IGNOU on Friday, July 28, at Devraha Ghat, to encourage the members of the transgender community to pursue higher education.
Head of the local transgender community, Payal Kinnar, appreciated the steps taken by IGNOU to provide free education to the aspiring transgenders.
In July 2016, IGNOU had announced that it will exempt the fees for its transgender students across all programmes offered by it. Payal added that this is the first step towards their empowerment of the transgender people and an initiative to bring them in the mainstream society.
Regional Director of IGNOU, Manorama Singh, said that IGNOU facilitates free education to jail inmates for their development. She added that similar opportunities have been created for the transgender community from the academic session 2017.
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She added that this opportunity created by IGNOU will not only democratise higher education but will also enable transgender students to pursue higher education at their door steps.
Assistant Regional Director and coordinator of the event, Kirti Vikram Singh, said that candidates interested in this opportunity can secure admissions by producing any certificate issued by a medical officer, the central or state government, the Aadhaar card or any other competent authority.
He also added that July 31, 2017, is the last date to register for these programmes. Additional information about the admission process is available on the official website of IGNOU.
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He further informed that Sudha Kinnar was the first student who enrolled at IGNOU under the transgender category to pursue Bachelor’s Preparatory Programme (BPP).
Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times