Queer on campus: ‘Professors seek sexual favours, slash marks on refusal’

For the first few days of college, Madhav Mohan dreaded going to the washroom in the campus. He had horrific memories of his school days when boys would follow him to the loo to “check” whether he was a man or woman. “I don’t face the same humiliation in college but crass jokes continue,” said Mohan, now a law student.Much of the discrimination Mohan faces due to his sexual orientation would constitute ragging under amended UGC guidelines. But most universities in India are yet to take note and have done little to check harassment of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) students. In 2016, UGC had amended the definition of ragging to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. “Most universities have not taken cognisance of it,” said L Ramakrishnan who works for NGO Saathii. medium nocaption72844139Queer students have little recourse and are likely to quit studies as constant harassment chips away at their self-worth. In extreme scenarios, they have ended their lives. In March this year, two first-year students at a college in Madurai committed suicide allegedly due to homophobic bullying by peers.Across campuses, queer students TOI spoke to said bullying was rampant. They shared telling stories of how they were stripped, made to dance, stopped from using washrooms and asked for sexual favours by professors.In many cases educators turn tormentors. Muhammed Unais, a B.Ed student at a college in Kollam, said one of his teachers told him in front of class the “cure” to his homosexuality lay in “pursuing a girl”. Raghavan, 21, a third-year student in a Chennai college, was asked for sexual favours by more than one professor. “I refused and they gave me low marks in internal exams.” medium nocaption72844184Jijo Kuriakose, founder of Queerala, an organisation working in the field of LGBT rights, said this seriously affects academic prospects of such students. Recently, Queerala conducted a survey of varsities in Kerala and found that only two had changed their prospectus to reflect discrimination based on sexual orientation. UGC mandates that directions regarding prohibition and consequences of ragging should be incorporated in the prospectus of all institutions. medium nocaption72847300Ray, a transgender pursuing LLB from Delhi University, said though anti-ragging workshops are conducted on campus, the issue of someone being targeted because of their sexual orientation is not broached. Rajesh, a professor at the Department of Adult, Continuing Education & Extension, University of Delhi, admitted that the varsity lacks “proper structure to address LGBT harassment”.Irina Das Sarkar, a researcher at Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, said she has learned to live with the “so-called jokes”. If developing a thick skin worked for some, others like Anirudh Gupta, a human rights activist, said he survived college life by sticking to a group of few, close-knit friends. medium nocaption72844310But some campuses, however, are beginning to change. The Jamia Queer Collective at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi is working towards dispelling myths associated with homosexuality. Cochin University of Science and Technology has set up a fund to aid queer students.Teachers can play a pivotal role. Hiranmay, a teacher at St Andrews Public School in Kolkata, had the support of fellow teachers when he returned to school after a sex-change surgery, this time as a woman. He is now known as Suchitra.Transgender activist Kalki Subramaniam may have just the remedy. Her manual, ‘A Teacher’s Guide To Gender Non-conforming Students’ is given free to institutions and has lessons on sexuality, gender identity and support for gender non-conforming children. “In my college hostel in Coimbatore, I faced ragging... made to strip, dance every day and sexually assaulted,” she said.A UGC official said all forms of harassment related to gender or sexual orientation are covered under ragging. “Over 90% of ragging cases reported to UGC have been resolved. We have not received any complaints on non-compliance of our guidelines by institutions.” medium nocaption72844505*Some names changed to protect identityInputs by Binu Karunakaran, Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran, Priya Menon, Ishita Mishra, Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, Faryal Rumi, and Mohammad IbrarUntitled Carousel 69718451