CREATING A SAFE SPACE

A handful of Indian educational institutions, including IIT Delhi and NALSAR Hyderabad, have introduced gender-neutral toilets and spaces.

- Sheena Sachdeva

In January 2023, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi inaugurated its first gender-neutral washroom. It was done at the initiative of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Intersex, asexual [LGBTQIA+] collective named Indradhanu at IIT Delhi. Vaivab Das, the IIT Delhi research scholar and member of the collective, said he was prompted by his own experience as a non-binary person -on campus.

"In 2020, when I entered the institute, I couldn't access the washroom considering my gender identity. There were no redressal mechanisms or groups for LGBTQIA+ people on campus. Through the collective, we started identifying the policy gaps to ensure an inclusive campus for its diverse population of students and professors," they said. IIT Delhi has 14 gender-neutral washrooms on campus now.

Although their number is still miniscule, Indian institutions of higher education, public and private, have begun embracing the idea of gender-neutral spaces on campus. Das explained that there is a lack of institutional mechanisms and policies for higher educational institutes, in both private and public universities, to address the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Hostels and toilets

In co-education institutions, student residences and washrooms are usually the only spaces with gender segregation.