No takers for ‘transgender quota’

Source: expressbuzz.com

BANGALORE: The muchappreciated initiative of Bangalore University to reserve some seats for transgender candidates in postgraduate courses has no takers.

The university reserved one seat each in all the postgraduate courses for transgender candidates. But it has not received even a single application this year.

The reservation proposal was approved at a meeting of the academic council in July.

According to an official of the university, they received more than 7,000 applications for postgraduate courses.

“We were expecting two to three applications from such students for different postgraduate courses,” said the official on condition of anonymity. “But it is surprising that we have not received a single application.”

The official said this was a new initiative and transgender candidates may not be comfortable about revealing their identity and hence did not apply under this quota.

“There are chances that they [transgender candidates] applied without revealing their identity as they have applied all these years,” said the official.

A senior academician said introducing special quota for transgenders at the postgraduate level was a welcome move.

“The same initiative needs to be taken at the undergraduate level,” said an academician. “When there is no provision at the degree level, one cannot expect much result at postgraduation level.”

Official sources said introducing such reservation at the degree level was not in the hands of the university.

“It is the government that can implement the reservation at the degree level,” said the official.

Akkai Padmashali, a transgender, said anybody who is a transgender usually discontinues education at the age of 14 or 15 years. It means they will be in Class IX or SSLC.

“If the government allows us to study or provides us reservation from the preuniversity level, there are many willing to study,” Akkai said.

Akkai said if the university was ready to give the same provision in correspondence course, many candidates were willing to pursue higher education.

Akkai said they had given a written request to former minister Shobha Kharandlaje, who has assured to speak to the concerned department and implement the reservation from preuniversity level.