When Karan Nikam, a final year undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B), cross-dressed for the first time on campus over a month ago, he anticipated mockery. “But nobody jeered, instead they cheered,” recalls Nikam, who credits Saathi, IIT-B’s LGBTQ+ resource group, for being instrumental in his ‘coming out’ journey and creating an inclusive environment. Founded in 2011 by a faculty member and two students, Saathi has an annual tradition of delivering a presentation on gender sensitivity during orientation for freshers. For many, it’s their first exposure to gender issues, which is supplemented by online support in the form of WhatsApp and Google groups and informal events on campus. “We provide a safe space for queer students and allies,” says Priya Sharma, PhD student and member of Saathi.

Widening the safety net

In the last three years, a handful of Mumbai colleges have established similar support groups for queer students, in the form of collectives and clubs. Tata Institute of Social Sciences’ (TISS) Queer Collective, informally recognised by the faculty, was established in 2015 as a support group to facilitate conversations. “There is no space for queer people on campuses,” says Christopher Nag, final year MPhil student and member of the TISS Queer Collective. The effort last year was to demand physical space for LGBTQ+ students by lobbying for a gender-neutral hostel, a first of its kind in India. “We are talking about gender-neutral washrooms now. That proposal has been submitted to the institute,” informs Nag.

Last academic year, Sion’s SIES College of Arts, Science, and Commerce founded an LGBTQAI+ club, The Rainbow Alliance. Their initiatives included panel discussions on decriminalisation of Section 377, queer roots in mythology, philosophy and politics, and screening of films like I Am (2010) and Love, Simon (2018).

Crucial faculty support

The SIES faculty, including college principal, Dr. Uma Shankar, has been supportive of the initiative. “When we started, we had 100 to 105 members, but now since we are autonomous, the college cut down the limitation [of a club] to 40,” informs Sarthak Joshi, a member of The Rainbow Alliance. Since its inception, The Rainbow Alliance has also countered homophobic slurs. “On our Instagram page, when we posted about the screenings, two-three students turned up and commented on the pages saying SIES college is becoming gay,” shares Joshi adding how the group chose to respond with understanding instead of anger.

While other institutes like KC College and Ramnarain Ruia Autonomous College do not have queer collectives, they have campus clubs that facilitate conversations and advocacy. “We have a Gender Issues Cell with representatives from both faculty and students, which exists for all students but is particularly sensitive to the needs of queer students,” informs Dr. Leena Pujari, Associate Professor and Head Department of Sociology, KC College. The cell’s efforts include interactive sessions with trans persons; documentary screening on trans rights; an intensive two-month certificate course in gender studies, which is administered primarily by students with resource persons drawn from different fields of inquiry, like queer rights activists, feminist academics, filmmakers and lawyers. Ruia College’s foundation course, offered to students in their second year of an undergraduate degree, includes a component on LGBTQ+ awareness.

Shifting dialogue

“If you look at the classroom discussions, they are all binary,” says Nag. “We have been thinking of doing something against [the] binary curriculum but the pressure of the curriculum itself is huge.” But the need for a shift in curriculum is palpable. Pujari observes that students in KC College, who have enrolled themselves in the gender studies course, become “harbingers of change on campus”. “[The certificate course in gender studies] has been running for the last five years and has led to a certain openness and enabled conversations on gender and sexuality on campus,” shares Pujari.

There are small but noticeable changes in mainstream courses as well. For instance, the revised (2018) Sociology curriculum has queer concerns firmly integrated into one of its courses titled, ‘Sociology of Gender’. “However, it’s not enough to simply introduce changes in the curriculum, pedagogic practices have to be substantially altered to make an impact,” emphasises Pujari.

Apart from providing safe spaces and fighting stigma, queer student collectives have responded to urgent issues like the controversial Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill. TISS Queer Collective reached out to Mumbai colleges when the bill was tabled in 2017. Last year, they extended their collaboration to institutes outside the city by releasing a joint statement on concerns about the bill.

After the Supreme Court partially struck down Section 377 in September last year, there has been a shift in focus. For instance, Saathi has moved from advocating for ‘azaadi’ to acceptance and intersectionality. Nikam informs that Saathi has also requested to have a sexologist visiting the campus hospital. “After the verdict we have more allies coming in and the freshman batch this year is pretty active, so we are reaching different corners every year,” says Nikam.