Inclusive education beyond rhetoric – Times of India

The National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad, has taken the step of introducing and implementing a draft interim policy on inclusive education for gender and sexual minorities. The institution, poised to become India’s first fully gender-neutral educational institution, has drawn inspiration from Supreme Court rulings over the years, Transgender Act enacted by the Modi government, UGC circulars and NEP 2020, in a bid to create a more conducive and gender-inclusive campus.

Reasons to act

“Our inspiration comes from the Supreme Court NALSA judgment in 2014 where the Apex Court recognised the existence of gender identity beyond the binary and upheld the principle of self-identification. Thereafter, in 2018, the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality (Section 377of Indian Penal Code) and stated that sexual orientation was a prohibited ground for discrimination under Article 15 of the Constitution. Prior to this, in yet another Privacy judgment in 2017, the Supreme Court stated that sexual orientation lies at the core of fundamental rights of Article 14, 15 and 21, UGC too came up with circulars emphasising upon inclusive spaces while the government of India through the Parliament passed a Transgender Protection of Rights Act, all of which culminated in our recent decision. Even NEP 2020 says there should be full equity and inclusion in education. These are the pillars behind our need to introduce inclusivity at the campus,” says NALSAR vice-chancellor Faizan Mustafa who recently got on the Forbes list for his contribution to legal scholarship.

Participatory system

He adds further, “We have a transparent, participatory regulation-making process where students are treated as the main stakeholders in the administrative process, be it for scholarships, hostel rules, drafting of the interim trans policy which has been implemented and is currently open for suggestions. So far, we have earmarked the ground floor of the girls’ hostel-6 as a gender-neutral space with rooms allotted to students self-identifying as members of the LGBTQ+ community. The washroom on the ground floor of the academic block has also been redefined as a gender-neutral washroom. Soon we will formalise the Policy and take it to the statutory bodies for further approval.”

Major reforms


As per the recent inclusive measures at the campus, transgender students are free to self-identify themselves. “We will not go by their aadhar certificates. Even salutations like ‘Mr’ and ‘Miss’ have already been removed in the Nalsar’s degrees and certificates. We are also not asking for any medical interventions nor do we believe any more in assigned gender identities. As part of scholarships, transgender students will be given tuition fee concessions through reasonable accommodation. A gender and sexual minorities officer will be appointed to address the grievances of gender and sexual minorities on the campus,” Mustafa adds.

Plans are also on to introduce courses of varying credits on sexual orientation and gender minorities for which experts will be invited to teach these subjects. “Our aim is to protect the dignity and privacy of each student, to ensure that learning is joyful and there is no discrimination against transgender persons and sexual minorities at the campus,” he adds.

Aqsa Shaikh, associate professor of Community Medicine, Jamia Hamdard, Delhi, feels these are welcome steps and hopes the institute does not stop at that. “Continuous engagement with the community and trans identifying students is needed to make the educational places truly inclusive.”

While noting there are very few transgender students pursuing law at present, Aqsa says, “A transgender person becoming a lawyer and a judge is news. This is because some of the educational institutions can be extremely transphobic spaces where trans students are named and shamed, isolated and harassed.”

Corrective steps

“We need to understand that the queer community is very diverse and cannot fit into a box, literally. Best practices from across the global universities can be utilised to make our educational spaces inclusive. Focus should be also on schools as children’s mindsets are formed early in life,” Aqsa says, citing her own experiences, “As a trans medical teacher and one who has trans medical students in the college, I can understand the challenges faced by our community at every step, from hostels to washrooms to degree certificates. It is time to embrace change.”