Hyderabad-based NALSAR University of Law has announced that it has designated one floor on its campus as a gender-neutral space with rooms allotted to students, who identify themselves as members of the LGBTQ+ community. The varsity further said it already has an interim policy in place to address inclusivity concerns of the LGBTQ+ community, and is in the process of drafting a final policy.
"We are pleased to share that in our endeavour to make our campus a truly inclusive space, the ground floor of GH-6 has been designated as a gender neutral space with rooms allotted to students self-identifying as members of the LGBTQ+ community, with plans to move towards a gender-neutral hostel in due course," NALSAR University said in a tweet on Saturday, March 26.
"The washroom on the ground floor of the academic block has also been designated as a gender-neutral washroom. The university already has an interim policy in place to address inclusivity concerns of the LGBTQ+ community, and is in the process of drafting a final policy," it said in another tweet.
We are pleased to share that in our endeavour to make our campus a truly inclusive space, the ground floor of GH-6 has been designated as a gender neutral space with rooms allotted to students self-identifying as members of the LGBTQ+ community, with plans to move towards a pic.twitter.com/163JeSGQ99
— NALSAR University of Law (@NALSAR_Official) March 26, 2022
The University's Vice-Chancellor Faizan Mustafa said that NALSAR believes in inclusive education. Mustafa tweeted: "I had involved students in my administration and their creative ideas have helped me in coming up with several progressive, liberal and futuristic policies."
In 2015, in a first, the NALSAR Law University had issued a gender-neutral graduation certificate to a student who did not wish to be identified with honorific Mr or Ms but with "Mx".
Not many educational institutions and universities in India currently have gender neutral hostels or trans friendly spaces. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai had opened a gender neutral hostel in 2018 after years of campaigning by the Queer Collective (QC) at TISS. There has also been a movement at the University of Hyderabad to seek gender-neutral housing on campus.