MUMBAI: Of last year’s graduating batch on the IIT-Bombay campus, 0.8% of the students said in a survey that they were unsure about their sexuality. This had grown to 3.5% by the time they left, indicating the queer-friendly nature of the campus.

A majority of the surveyed students, around 80.5% said they never had sex during their stay on campus, and over 50% said they were not in a relationship while on campus.

“The sex ratio is very poor on the campus, which is primarily the reason for fewer relationships here. The campus is very proactive in terms of promoting freedom to choose your sexuality, which explains the rise in percentage of students unsure about their sexuality,” Mohak Mehta, a final-year BTech student from the campus, said .

The comprehensive survey of the batch that passed out last year was done by the student media body on the campus, Insight, with a sample size of 260. When these students came to the campus, 97% believed they were straight, but this number came down to 93.4% as they graduated last year.

Around 2.3% revealed that they were bisexual when the corresponding figure at the time of joining was just 1.2%. A student said the poor sex ratio could be a reason for students to try out different ventures. While 80.5% students said they never had sex, only 1.6% said they had sex regularly throughout their stay on the Powai campus.

“We decided to include these questions in our survey to gain a peek into the personal lives of students in a way that does not invade their privacy,” said Niranjan Thakurdesai, chief editor of Insight. “The findings indicate that our campus is queer-friendly and students are no longer afraid to be open about their sexuality. In fact, there’s a community called Saathi on campus which is dedicated to creating a positive space for LGBTQ people and sensitizing the students on the campus.”

Around 33% of students on the campus claimed to have been in a relationship with one person during their stay, whereas 1.6% claimed to have had relations with 10 people.

