By Harish Iyer:
We spend most of our time either at work or at school. Truth be told, we get home mostly only to sleep or to have an occasional vacation with family. It, therefore, becomes extremely important that our second family – which comprises of school authorities, college staff, bosses and colleagues are helpful. Well, that also helps in bringing down cases of abuse and suicide. The very thought that you will not be judged for who you are or who you love is a welcome relief. What more do you need at a time when your hormones are doing a disco and tango in full swing.
School and college time is the time for major crushes, identity evaluation and all that goes with it. One needs to be assured of the best support in campus, as much as at home. Here is a list of some remarkable educational institutions which have gender/sexuality support groups.
Tagore International School
Tagore international school is one of the premier schools in Delhi. This is substantiated by the fact that they have a very active LGBTIQ support group that blogs, tweets, organises events, and even walks the pride. ‘Breaking Barriers’ is the name of the group. Quite literally so.
Active Group : Breaking Barriers.
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/breakingbarriers.tis/
Contact : breakingbarriers.tis@gmail.com
Contact person : Gaurav Kumar
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Dhanak is the queer group from JNU that is active in sharing important information, debates, hosting events all to keep the conversation afloat. Dhanak means ‘rainbow’ wherein seven colours stand for a multiplicity of identities—queer identities, to be precise.
Active Group : Dhanak
Contact : dhanakaqueergroup@gmail.com
IIT Bombay
Goes without saying, they are one of the most proactive groups when it comes to LGBTIQ advocacy by an institute. Besides organising events in their campus, they come up with regular events and YouTube series to cut across linguistic barriers.
Active Group : Saathi
Facebook : https://www.fb.com/saathi.iitb/
Contact : saathi.iitbombay@gmail.com
IIT Kharagpur
The sprawling campus of IIT Kharagpur is bustling with energy. They have a very active LGBT group called ‘Ambar’. Ambar has hosted queer film festivals and has also invited the queer community for interactions with the student community.
Active Group : Ambar
Contact : Click here for the contact form
IIT Roorkee
QAGAAR (Queer And Gender Advancement Alliance Roorkee) is the queer and gender support group in IIT Roorkee. “Come join us as we stand on the verge of a promising future,” reads their Facebook page.
Active Group : Qagaar
Contact : Unavailable
IIT Gandhinagar
Orenda at IIT Gandhinagar aims to achieve an all-inclusive campus for people of different identities that fall on the gender and sexuality spectrum. Orenda means a supernatural force believed by the Iroquois Indians to be present, in varying degrees, in all objects or persons, and to be the spiritual force by which human accomplishment is attained or accounted for.
Active Group : Orendra – Gender and Sexuality Club
Contact : orenda.iitgn@gmail.com
IIT Delhi
Indradhanu is the Sexuality And Gender Diversity Support Group of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi that is committed to serving the needs of LGBT community and questioning students by creating a “positive space” for LGBTQ people to discover and come to terms with themselves in a safe, comforting and confidential environment.
Active Group : Indradhanu
Facebook : www.fb.com/IndradhanuIITD/
Contact : Click here to fill the contact form
BITS Pilani
Anchor is BITS Pilani’s initiative for starting the dialogue on sexuality. Their motto on their Facebook page summarises the intent of the group – “Here’s hoping that this small effort will create a difference; with the realization that if this forum helps even one person in any which way, we can all revel in the joy of setting ourselves on this daunting task of changing the mindsets of thousands of students and faculty and consider it a job well done.”
Active Group: Anchor
Contact : AnchorAtBITS@gmail.com
IISc Bangalore
IISc Bangalore has a support group called QUASI (Queer and Straights at IISc). It’s a tight-knit lot comprising of undergraduate, Masters and Ph.D. students of the Institute. QUASI aims to serve as a platform for raising awareness about sexual and gender diversity as well as for providing a support network for sexual and gender minorities in IISc. QUASI is an extension of the group ‘Queer IISc’ to its straight allies and they welcome participation from the larger community at IISc and neighbouring institutes such as NIAS, JNCASR and NCBS.
Active Group: QUASI
Contact: quasi.iisc@gmail.com
This article was originally published here.