The pre-admission form for undergraduate courses in the Delhi University is likely to have an option for the third gender. But due to still unavailable guidelines, they might not be able to claim reservation under the OBC category, as ordered by the Supreme Court.
In absence of any government notification on giving admission reservation benefit to transgenders, the university last year had not confronted the challenge of admitting them under the Other Backward Classes category.
The apex court in its path-breaking judgement last April granted “third gender” status for hijras or transgender. It had then said that absence of law recognising eunuchs as third gender could not be continued as a ground to discriminate them in availing equal opportunities in education and employment.
DU media coordinator Malay Neerav told Deccan Herald that the university will write to the Human Resource Development Ministry to clear the air over who all could qualify under this category.
He said medical certificates could be required to ascertain the new beneficiaries under the OBC quota, as has been the case with those claiming reservation under the “persons with disability” category.
The varsity will begin the admission process for undergrad courses in first week of June.
Other universities like Jamia Millia Islamia and Jawaharlal Nehru University also claimed that they lack unambiguous policy on giving admission to transgender applicants.
The two central universities didn’t have option for the third gender in their application forms.
In fact, DU was the only university in the city to have introduced third-gender option in its online form for the postgraduate courses. Nine applicants had declared themselves as transgenders in their online submission for postgraduate courses last year.
They, however, were not able to claim any reservation.
“After introduction of the third-gender option, transgenders no longer have to declare themselves as female while applying for admission,” said Neerav.
But the university officials said they are expecting nothing short of detailed guidelines from the government.
“It is important to notify the appropriate authority for issuance of medical certificates to transgenders. Otherwise, it could possibly open doors for fake admissions,” a DU official said.
