BARRIERS TO EDUCATION: CHALLENGES FACED BY TRANSGENDER STUDENTS IN INDIA

 BARRIERS TO EDUCATION: CHALLENGES FACED BY TRANSGENDER STUDENTS IN INDIA

INTRODUCTION

Education is the most common and basic fundamental human right added in our constitution to empower individuals, to uplift communities, to abolish discrimination and also to help our economy grow. We are so focused on our own well being, that we even forget there's a third gender and they are struggling to utilize this basic right. An educated transgender is so rare to see, whenever a transgender accomplishes something, it makes us happy but never did we question why there's only a handful number of trans people getting educated while others are not? For transgender students, educational spaces are a place of discrimination and exclusion. Since the moment they step into school, they face all sorts of bullying, harassment and abuse that the cisgender students would never face. They are forced to question their own identity.

Due to these discriminatory practices, even if the government provides legal aids and protection in the form of the NALSA v. Union of India judgment (2014) and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, implementation in day-to-day life remains a challenge and unknowingly leads to a gender being ignored. In most cases, gender-neutral infrastructure is lacking, as is appropriate training for staff and inclusive policies. Another instance where transgender identity becomes invisible is in curriculum content. Hence, their exit from the education system is a major factor limiting transgender persons' opportunities and deepening their social marginalization. 

This blog explores major issues transgender people face in the education sector: legal gaps, social barriers, infrastructure challenges, and policy failure.

LACK OF LEGAL RECOGNITION AND DOCUMENTATION BARRIERS

A major issue faced by transgender students revolves around a lack of appropriate ability to identify themselves in school and college records.  Applications for admission, examination, and Institutional IDs are almost entirely binary - male or female with no room for a third gender or gender neutral.  This unfortunate erasure of identity leaves the transgender student with innate dominance of how to voluntarily identify with school systems, or not at all. 

In 2014, the Indian Supreme Court, in an historic judgment in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India,  upheld transgender persons as a third gender, interpreting their status as being covered under fundamental rights of Articles 14, 15, 16, 19, and 21 of the Constitution, which govern equality before law, prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and the right to live with dignity.  Individual acts go through additional formal processes. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 further confirmed the requirement that non-discriminatory practices formally exist in educational institutions. Statutory compliance in real time is more, and in most instances - similar to one direction, not equally mutual. There continue to be many institutions for high school and college students that rely on gender identity to confirm a birth certificate to academic record or earlier identification of sex/gender.  Without formal recognition and/or family and community support to successfully transition, students are faced to ignore a requirement that assumes persons they will become in the future only through acknowledged amount of avoided contrivance and continue their previous experience educationally going forward if they desire.  Bureaucracy does significantly alienate many from a system that they did not even strong arm a system as respect before they received a ticket to the classroom.

UNKNOWN CHALLENGES

School environments can be truly intimidating to the transgender children. These children are exposed to verbal harassment, violence threats, or sexual advances at school. Their peers do this, but sometimes the teachers and staff also do. A survey conducted by the world and national level, UNESCO and Sahodaran (2018) revealed more than 60% of transgender students in India reported that they were bullied at school. This type of harassment makes the school environment more fearsome and traumatic. Consequently, it hurts how frequently pupils attend class, how they perform in school, and ultimately, their own mental health.

Most schools do not have programs to teach their employees and students regarding issues of gender. They don't have any gender-neutral support and often face lots of criticism and discrimination. This happens because they face years of unfair treatment feeling left out, and being picked on. The Right to Education (Article 21-A) states that all children between the ages of 6-14 must receive free education, but for transgender kids, this "right" turns into a source of suffering due to its impact on them. Infrastructure is the most critical component in establishing an inclusive school environment.

Too bad that most schools and colleges were not built with transgender students in mind. Planning washrooms, changing rooms, and hostels that split along binary lines tends to force transgender students to utilize facilities which do not match their identities. This puts these students in a vulnerable position open to harassment or violence, while others just avoided using them altogether, something that affects their comfort and well-being. The UGC Guidelines for Transgender Inclusion in Higher Education Institutions (2021) recommends the provision of gender-neutral toilets and accommodation, but their implementation in even a few institutions is rare. The problem of the lack of safe infrastructure points to a larger issue in that transgender inclusion is rather an afterthought and not a fundamental element in the education planning process. Transgender individuals remain largely invisible in school education. History books do not discuss transgender individuals; science books learn about gender, but not gender variety; and sex education (if offered) educates binary norms and heteronormative models of behaviour. This invisibility solidifies ignorance and misinformation, cultivating cisgender pupils' stigma and self-doubt among trans pupils in schools.

In addition, when transgender individuals are referenced, transgender issues are presented as deviance or pathology problems. Pathology focus would undermine the validity of transgender identity, and in the process, perpetuate negative stereotypes. It is important that LGBTQ+ subjects are taught in schools in positive and correct manners, in order to normalize diversity and develop empathy early in life. Education needs to shift in order to reflect the actual real-life continuum of human diversity.

CONCLUSION

Education is a basic right, and it can be used to empower the social and personal transformation of an individual. For most people, school and college are institutions for learning, development, and opportunities. For transgender individuals, however, these places become battlegrounds for their very identities filled with prejudice and institutional abandonment. Although laws have started to slowly carve out inclusivity through a newly formed social consciousness, the day-to-day realities of transgendered students reveal deep structural issues in the education system. Transgenders are denied almost anything institutional, ranging from denial of recognition and abusive treatment in classrooms to exclusionary policies and spaces, let alone socially. Their learning experience is often coloured with psychological trauma, bullying, dropout, and poor support mechanisms that need urgent consideration, along with empathetic redress.

The promise of education is that it can transform our societies, but for transgender people, that promise is too often unfulfilled. With the growing legal aids and policies, everyday realities at schools, colleges, and universities are still being marked by inequalities and discrimination against this certain gender. It's time we see humans as just humans and pave a way to fulfil all their fundamental rights.

 Closing Credit

 Author- Shruthika M

"The views expressed are personal. This article is intended for educational purposes and public discourse. Feedback and constructive criticism are welcome!"