New Delhi: Despite being active since the summer of 2013, Breaking Barriers is still in a tribe of one. Judging by the way things are going, that tribe's not growing any time soon. Madhulika Sen, principal of Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar , has spoken to other principals in the city but the idea of a school-level rights group for sexual minorities-Breaking Barriers is likely the first and only group of its kind in Delhi-has simply not caught on.

"We got better response internationally than locally," said eleventh-grader Sohini Chakrabarti who is now project-head. It is easy to see why. Discussing LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) issues in schools demands a rare degree of boldness. The Breaking Barriers wallboard at TIS, for example, is titled, "Homosexuality a foreign impact? LGBTQI people simply aping the West? Think again!" and thumbtacked below it are examples of sexual minorities from the scriptures. "I have reached out to a lot of schools but no one is ready to start something similar," said Sen. Some school heads are conservative themselves; most fear parents will object. Not for TIS though. If any parent had reservations, they kept it to themselves. "We sent notices out," added Sen, "Not one parent objected."

The absence of replication doesn't imply there's no need for such groups. Questions and appeals for help left on Breaking Barriers' social media pages attest to their importance. " Students attending other schools have left messages saying they think they might be gay, that they are teased by classmates and treated differently by teachers. I don't think we are competent to counsel but our previous project coordinator had an entire list of counsellors-some worked for free, some charged-and we'd share those," said Class XII student Safina Amin.

Amin and Chakrabarti had started Breaking Barriers on the advice of a staff member who has since left TIS. It began as a one-year project to be entered in a leadership competition, but has stuck around and expanded to include roughly 60 students of whom over 30 are in the core team. They were trained by NGOs Naz Foundation and Crea. The members had feared for its fate almost immediately after its inception. "Breaking Barriers was formed after Section 377 was read down. When the Supreme Court nullified that order, homosexuality suddenly became illegal again and we were wondering about the campaign. But we are still here," said Chakrabarti.

Its wallboard is updated monthly; there's a separate corner in the senior library for reading material and news items on the subject are assiduously archived. There are pages on Facebook and Instagram; and a YouTube channel too. On September 2015, an international e-zine, Thrive, was launched along with the Breaking Barriers website. In Delhi, the team has visited only a handful of private schools but is hoping to expand its reach this year. They took their presentation to New York in October 2014 and Hyderabad in February 2015. "Right after we were done with the presentation," said Sen, "A boy came out and teachers didn't react adversely but with empathy."

