The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) will soon offer hostel services to transgender and gender nonconforming students. TISS issued a notice on 5th April, 2018, informing students that the ground floor of hostel no. 4 would be allotted to self-identified transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming persons.
Ten twin-sharing rooms will be made available to students on a first-come-first-served basis from the academic session of 2018-19.
Prof. P. K. Shahjahan, the Dean of Student Affairs, said, “The gender amity committee and student representatives have decided to create this space. This will be done on an experimental basis for one year, and we will take stock next year.”
The initiative is a step forward according to the TISS Queer Collective, which has been working towards achieving more such gender-neutral spaces. A student who is part of the Queer Collective mentioned that more work needs to be done with regards to the creation of such spaces and that they were waiting on the clarity of the rules for the hostel.