Transgenders To Get Free Education In Public Varsities, Affiliated Colleges In Maharashtra

Maharashtra will provide free higher education to transgender students in the state's public universities and affiliated institutes. Chandrakant Patil, the state's Higher and Technical Education Minister, made the declaration on Tuesday, following a state-level meeting with vice-chancellors of all universities to discuss the successful implementation of the new National Education Policy.

According to information supplied by the higher and technical education minister's office, Patil proposed granting free higher education to transgender students at public institutions and affiliated colleges.

“Patil appealed to universities to bear the cost of tuition fees of transgender students from its funds. It was unanimously agreed upon by VCs present for the meeting,” shared an official from the department. The official continued, “Beginning the discussion of higher education for transgenders is a first step toward encouraging inclusivity on campuses of higher education institutions in Maharashtra. The state plans to formulate a comprehensive policy to ensure the inclusion of transgenders in higher education. The minister has urged VCs to work toward this by starting with identifying the challenges faced by transgender students, which can be infrastructural shortcomings such as the absence of separate toilets to lack of sensitisation in the student community, which leads to bullying and other issues, thus deterring many from revealing their identity.”

Mumbai University currently has 7 transgender students studying in affiliated colleges.

The meeting on Tuesday was attended by various administrative heads from departments and Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of all state universities, as well as members of the state's NEP2020 steering committee, led by Dr Nitin Karmalkar, former V-C of Savitribai Phule Pune University.

The forum also discussed the status of universities and related colleges' NAAC accreditation. Patil advocated for a voter registration campaign to be launched at universities and colleges by National Service Scheme (NSS) students in order to register all students who are eligible to vote.

He also asked universities to consider offering certification courses without exams for individuals who left education due to reasons such as jobs or businesses and do not return to education fearing exams.