MUMBAI: Application forms for admission to Indian academic institutes have always defined an aspirant as either belonging to the male or female gender. But as universities across the country open their gates to the third gender, the UGC has decided to include transgender people as a separate category for its scholarship and fellowship schemes.

The UGC notification follows the April 2014 SC judgment that carved out an independent status for the third gender . Earlier, they were forced to click on male or female against the gender asked. The SC verdict said eunuchs, apart from the binary gender, be treated as a third gender for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under the Indian Constitution and laws made by Parliament and state legislatures.Soon after, several universities altered their admission forms. Pune’s Fergusson College included the category of third gender in its application forms for all courses. “As we open our scholarships for transgender people, we are hoping that no student is left out of the higher education system for want of funds,” said a UGC official. While the council does not have any data on the count of students belonging to the third gender, officials plan to include them in the annual census at universities.Vivek Anand, CEO of the Humsafar Trust which safeguards and promotes rights of the LGBT community, said, “The scholarships will make a huge difference as a lot of star performers from the LGBT community come from socially and economically backward communities. They drop out of education because there aren’t proper avenues to start off.”Transgender community celebrates the landmark SC judgmentWhile most Indian universities said they never turned down admission requests from transgender candidates , their application forms did not have an option under the gender choices for them. “Some transgender people get admitted to courses as males, some as females. But they don’t like making that choice. It is important for educational institutes to create space for them and make a start by mentioning ‘others’ or ‘transgender’ in their applications,” added Anand.Bangalore University was probably the first one in India, in 2010, to allow eligible transgender people pursuing higher education to take admission and avail of the reservation quota of one seat in each of the 60 post-graduate courses it offered. It also edited its application form, allowing aspirants to tick on any one of the three gender groups they belonged to: male, female or a TG (transgender).