Transgender Community to Get Separate Column in Co-Ed Technical Institutes: AICTE

As per the directives of the All India Council for Technical Education or the AICTE, all technical institutes under it have been asked to include a separate column in all the necessary documents and has also directed them to maintain data points of the transgender students. This was listed in the handbook of AICTE which was recently unveiled.

The handbook makes it necessary for all technical institutions (about 3,000 in number at present) to admit transgender students with the boys and girls. According to the AICTE chairman, Mr. Anil Sahasrabudhe, the move has been taken to make it easier for the transgender community students to apply for technical courses without having to identify as either female or male.

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Another senior official also stated that this step will ensure that no discrimination is faced by the transgender students. He added that the Human Resource Development ministry had also initially asked the institutes to maintain a database of this category of students.

Moreover, the institutes will also need to add information about the same in their prospectus, application forms, and other documents that are published by them. They will need to include a separate column for the transgender community in all official paperwork.

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In the year 2014, the Supreme Court had granted the permission to transgender students to seek admission in the educational institutes and further made provisions for employment on the basis of the third gender category.

Later, the University Grants Commission (UGC) further asked all the university VCs to include a separate transgender column in documents and applications and directed them to ensure that they are unbiasedly inducted in the courses of their choice, without any discrimination.

Source & Image courtesy: Indian Express