Chennai: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has informed the Madras high court that the training material on the LGBTQIA+ community for teaching staff was taken down after being uploaded on the website because they had not followed a due procedure of review and not due to any external pressure.
The Union ministry of social justice and empowerment also informed the court that they are “actively working” towards setting up at least one Garima Greh in every state and union territory for destitute transgender persons.
Under the Garima Greh scheme, the transgender persons get a secure living space and care.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh was hearing the case on December 23 pursuant to his landmark judgment passed on June 7 to ensure that the transgender community, including those in consensual relationships, was protected from various quarters, including police harassment. The case pertained to a lesbian couple moving court seeking protection as they were in a consensual relationship and complained of being harassed by their parents who had filed FIRs with local police saying that their daughters were missing.
In the previous hearing held on December 6, the judge said that NCERT rightly posted material on its website to sensitise teachers but “in a very shocking development”, it was taken down within hours of its publication due to pressure from some quarters.
{{/usCountry}}In the previous hearing held on December 6, the judge said that NCERT rightly posted material on its website to sensitise teachers but “in a very shocking development”, it was taken down within hours of its publication due to pressure from some quarters.
{{/usCountry}}In its response the educational body has said that the Department of Gender Studies, NCERT, proposed a programme, tiled ‘Development of Training Material for Teacher and Teacher Educators on Transgender Concerns in School Education’, which was approved by the Councils’ Academic and Programme Advisory Committees.
A draft was ready in July. “As an academic exercise, every material developed by the NCERT undergoes various stages before being finalised and put in public domain,” the extract from NCERT’s response says, adding that every material is tried out with the target groups, reviewed by different stakeholders, inviting comments and suggestions on the draft.
“Since this is a training material for teachers and teacher educators for sensitisation on such an important societal concern, it needs to be in a desired format, to be tried out through consultation with schools, teachers and teacher educators to take feedback before finalising it,” NCERT said. “Though the training material has been removed from the NCERT website, NCERT has already started the process of its internal and external review of the training programme.” NCERT plans to rollout the training module by the next academic session.
Court: Cover entire community under Garima Greh
Other government departments, such as the state’s legal services, also submitted a status report on the progress made in moving towards being more sensitive and inclusive to the trangsgender community. The Union ministry of social justice and empowerment informed the court that they are “actively working” towards setting up at least one Garima Greh in every state and union territory for destitute transgender persons.
“The benefit under the scheme has to be extended to the entire LGBTQIA+ community and must not be confined only to transgender persons,” the court said, pointing out that transgender are only a fraction of the entire community.
LGBTQIA+ is an abbreviation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and others.
“Only then can it be considered as a wholesome and non-discriminative welfare scheme benefitting persons who otherwise are being marginalised in the society. The Ministry has to bear in mind that persons from the LGBTQIA+ community as such do not have any support from their family or from the society at large. Therefore, the welfare schemes provided by the Government are their only ray of hope.”
These shelter homes are currently present in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, West Bengal and Rajasthan and are maintained by transgender community-based organisations.
State to draft glossary of terms to address community
The court in its order copy also included words and expressions in Tamil and English which the media can use to address the LGBTQIA + community. Stating that the list is illustrative and not exhaustive, the court said, “There must be a beginning where persons belonging to this community are addressed in a more dignified manner.”
The court directed the additional advocate general to forward the list to the state government so that a standardised prospective glossary can be drawn up. “Once the Government publishes the same, it will have more force and will be easier to implement,” the court said. “If these words and expressions are used regularly, it will become a common practice and that will pave the way for a dignified identity for persons belonging to this community.”
The court expected the government to submit this before the next date of hearing posted for February 18.