How College Queer Collectives In India Are Creating Inclusive Spaces On Campus
College queer collectives in India have been around for years 每 decades in some cases 每 and are becoming increasingly common, formed in response to the needs of students
Housing, mental health resources, and community support 每 queer collectives on college campuses are empowering students to ask for all this and more.
※I came from a small city in Chhattisgarh called Korba. Before I joined college, I didn＊t know that being queer was a possibility,§ says 28-year-old law research scholar Monidipa Sengupta.
When Monidipa was in her second year of undergraduate studies at Hidayatullah National Law University in Raipur, she realised that she is pansexual. The catalyst for her being open about it? Meeting queer seniors at her law school.
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The value created by queer collectives
College queer collectives in India have been around for years 每 decades in some cases 每 and are becoming increasingly common, formed in response to the needs of students just like Monidipa.
In 2021, 4.1 crore students had enrolled in higher education in India, according to the All India Survey on Higher Education report released in January 2023 by the Ministry of Education, Government of India.
In September 2018, the Indian Supreme Court overturned Section 377 of the country＊s penal code that had effectively criminalised homosexuality. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019 also forbids acts of discrimination against the transgender community, specifically mentioning discrimination in educational institutions.
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But widespread stigma persists against these communities on social and institutional levels. A 2021 study of higher education students by IIM Ahmedabad, the Boston Consultancy Group and Diversity & Inclusion consultancy firm Pride Circle suggested that a staggering 64% of the respondents, who self-reported as belonging to the queer community, face overt discrimination.
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The recent marriage equality hearings also showed that the government has taken a stand against same-sex couples having the full gamut of rights available to citizens of India.
In this situation, college collectives are a haven for people from gender and sexual minority communities, allowing them access to support, resources, knowledge 每 and the bargaining power to secure accommodations like gender-neutral bathrooms and hostels.
Shivam Sharma is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (Nalsar) in Hyderabad. He is also a member of the university＊s queer collective.
※When I arrived on campus, my senior Kranthi, who is a transgender person and a founder of the collective, helped to arrange for gender-neutral housing for me,§ says Shivam. ※We secured the ground floor of the girl＊s hostel for anyone who＊d prefer such quarters.§
Shivam is now a part of the formal Committee that is helping to frame the University＊s policies for people from gender and sexual minority groups, just as Kranthi was. This comes after the institution announced in 2022 that it would become a gender-neutral campus, due to the collective＊s efforts.
How do such collectives operate?
Not all collectives work the same way. Some of them have core or executive committees with office-bearing positions in addition to general memberships, while many others prefer to operate in a more decentralised manner, with the help of volunteers.
In many cases, multiple collectives have been formed after old ones became inactive once their founders graduated. The pandemic hit these groups particularly hard 每 with fewer students coming to campus, there was no chance to gather as they used to.
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But as campuses go back to functioning full-time, these collectives are coming back to life, with pride marches, fundraisers, mixers and sharing circles being some of the community events they＊re focusing on.
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※We just did our flagship event 每 a discussion session with queer speakers and a pride parade 每 during our college fest in March,§ says an office-bearer of the Rainbow Dot Club, the queer collective of NIT Rourkela, who requested anonymity. ※It was a huge success, with nearly 200 students taking part both from our institution and others, but it took us six months to get permission from the college administration for the event, despite being formally recognised as a student club.§
Not all the collectives are registered with their university authorities as officially sanctioned on-campus groups. Being registered comes with its own set of problems; often, it requires the keeping of an official record of members, which can mean people being outed as being from the queer community against their will, possibly endangering their safety. But it also comes with the power to get authorities involved in cases of issues such as cyberbullying and harassment.
Fighting stigma on campus
In May 2023, IIT Delhi＊s queer collective, Indradhanu, posted on their Instagram page that they had filed a police complaint against a page posting discriminatory memes against the club.
※The meme implied the use of corrective rape against members of the community,§ says Varun O K, former student of the institute and member of Indradhanu. ※We worked with the authorities to approach Delhi police. The page has now been taken down.§
This is not an isolated incident. A former office bearer of QAGAAR, the queer collective at IIT Roorkee, has screenshots showing discriminatory comments and posts against students celebrating Pride. In the case of QAGAAR, however, members had much more trouble getting authorities to act 每 partly because it＊s not yet officially registered as a collective.
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Both Varun and his compatriot from QAGAAR say that most of the people posting the content are students from the institution itself, indicating a higher need for sensitisation. Many collectives require personal references or the filling of forms to ensure the people who join will not make the space unsafe for others.
But for some, the collectives run the risk of perpetuating the same inequalities that exist outside these spaces.
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※As a Dalit queer student, I felt incredibly uncomfortable at first,§ says Vishnu, a third-year Health Psychology student who helped found the Sexualities and Gender Alliance at their place of study, the University of Hyderabad. ※The voices of Dalit students were often drowned out in most queer circles. It was much harder for me to come out as Dalit to my fellow students than it was to come out as queer.§
Vishnu＊s experience was echoed in their chats with other Dalit queer people, who said they felt that there is a lot of class difference in queer spaces as well.
※Although we have consciously tried to create space for Dalit students in the collective, upper-caste and upper-class queer people have to take mindful actions towards this,§ says Vishnu.
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For Monidipa, her college seniors provided a kind of shelter that she had not experienced before, which is why when she arrived at her current place of study 每 IIT Kharagpur 每 she sought out Ambar, the institute＊s queer support group. For the academic year 2022-2023, she was a governor of the collective.
※Once, I was the student who went to her seniors for help, and now I＊m the person that many kids have come out to,§ she says. ※This wouldn＊t have happened if I hadn＊t found the right queer people at the right point in my life. That＊s why these collectives are so important.§
For more stories on the LGBTQIA+ community and queerness in India, keep reading Spectrum on Indiatimes.
