Kochi: After becoming the state’s first age-friendly educational institution, the Sacred Heart College, Thevara, has now opened its doors to the transgender community as part of its inclusive education policy. The admission is mainly open to 16 post-graduate courses from this academic year onwards. “However, there is no reservation for the community and the admission will be purely on merit as is the practice for higher education courses. We’ve given a third option against ‘gender’ in the ‘registration’ section of the application forms --- that of ‘transgender’ besides the general ‘male’ or ‘female’ options,” said Dr Fr Prasanth Palackappillil, Principal.
In March last, the college had become the first ‘age-friendly’ institution in the state when it started skill development courses for candidates of all age groups, especially senior citizens. “Though there was no bar on their admission till now, what we’ve taken is a stand for recognizing and accepting the community. Those bold candidates from the community can register under the third category and will be treated as equal along with other students. Like the Kochi Metro, we’ve decided to initiate the change on how society sees the community,” the principal said.
Two weeks back, the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd had decided to extend employment opportunities to transgender community in housekeeping, crowd management and customer relations. The SH College already has an Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC) to ensure that students from communal, religious and regional spectrum experience no discrimination of any sorts. “A decision will be taken on adding more basic infrastructure facilities catering to all groups. We’re thinking of a campaign to make the community aware of the education facility. Usually they refuse to openly declare their gender but our aim is to change the perspective of society,” he said.
