DU sees rise in applicants from transgender community

Within seven days of the ongoing admission session, the Delhi University (DU) has witnessed a sharp rise in applicants from the transgender community. This year, so far, 30 students from the community have registered themselves with the university admission portal, seeking admission in various colleges of DU for the 2017-18 session.

Last year, the number of applicants from the transgender community was almost half this year. The number of applicants is likely to increase as the admission process will end on 12 June. The online admission procedure for centralised registration for admissions to merit-based courses in DU began on 22 May.

In 2014, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had introduced a separate category for the transgender community in all the central universities across the country, including DU. The initiative was aimed at attracting more students from the transgender community and to make higher education institutions accessible for them.

The UGC had given instructions to the central universities across the country to build transgender-friendly infrastructure, especially in washrooms and restrooms in colleges of these universities. It was also suggested that the universities introduce chapters from research papers on the transgender community in the curriculum at all levels of study as a mandatory component.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Guardian has learnt that the total number of registrations so far for admission in DU colleges was about 1,10,000 out of which 90,000 have already submitted their personal details.

DU Registrar Tarun Das said: “Till now, the numbers of female applicants are 53,000, while the numbers of male applicants are about 57,000. This is the second time since the university had introduced a complete online admission procedure.”

To make the application process glitch-free, the university has created a grievance redressal system. Last year, when the online application system was launched, many applicants had complained about the server crashing and the slow form-filling process.

A guideline has been incorporated on the home page of DU’s registration portal for providing “step-by-step instructions on how to fill up the form”, which is also available in Hindi. A university official said: “The form could be ‘edited’ till 12 June, the last date of online registration, even if an aspirant had already submitted the form.”