Zero Is The Number Of Transgender Students Taking Admission In Delhi University

“There has been zero admissions of transgender students in Delhi University’s regular course in the last admission session”, as revealed by an RTI reply to a TOI query. In addition, University officials also said that the number of applications under the “other” gender category had been negligible with only 83 applications.

According to a disclosure done by professor Rajesh, “Few members of the transgender community apply, however, almost none get an entry”. He has been a part of the 2013 Union Ministry of Social justice’s expert committee looking into issues related to transgender education. “Education may not be transgender-friendly, but DU is like a mini-India and it must reach out to these students” ,¬†is what he says.

DU allowed those seeking admission to identify themselves as male, female or “other” gender only three years ago. Not many applicants were from “other” gender and no one could meet the cutoffs in order to take admission in the varsity. The admission committee, keeping in mind last year’s figure of 83 explained that a lot of students wrongly clicked on the “other” category or made a mistake and later came for correction.

Rajesh Tandon, Dean of students’ welfare committee, claimed, “We accept all applications and anybody who clears the cut-offs will get admission in DU.” Despite the door being opened to transgender , studying in DU as a transgender requires a strong will to be able to withstand the discomforting taunts and stares. Rajesh also suggested that some steps such as reservations for LGBTQ students along with the OBC quota can be considered. He further added that, ” DU can also create a special cell for transgenders, have special students programmes and NCERT could add content about them in its curriculum.”

JP Dubey, former dean of the department of adult, continuing education and extension, pointed out that anonymity is important for transgenders and that is why those who got admission opted mostly for the School of Open Learning instead of regular UG and PG courses.