The NCERT contains a section titled 'Success Stories of Transgender Persons to Serve as Role Models'. Pixabay
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has released a new training manual for teachers that intends to increase sensitivity towards transgender children.
The manual, titled ‘Inclusion of Transgender Children in School Education: Concerns and Roadmap’, has been published by the Department of Gender Studies at NCERT.
The training material also addresses the aspects of gender diversity keeping gender-nonconforming and transgender children at the core.
The manual explains concepts such as gender identity, gender incongruence, gender dysphoria, gender affirmation, gender expression, gender conformity, gender variance, heterosexuality, homosexuality, asexuality, bisexuality, and transnegativity. It explains the definitions of terms that people use to identify themselves, such as gender fluid, agender, transfeminine, and transmasculine.
Provision of gender-neutral toilets and uniforms, sensitisation on non-teaching staff, discontinuing practices that segregate children into various school activities based on their gender, creation of support groups in schools, inviting transgender speakers on campus are some of the practical strategies from the manual that should make schools sensitive and inclusive for transgender and gender non-conforming children.
According to the document, toilets are used to brainwash children into believing that there are only two sexes, men and women. It is used to condition children into binary gender; female children are conditioned to use the toilets labeled ‘girls’ and male children are to use the toilet marked for ‘boys’.
The manual contains a section titled 'Success Stories of Transgender Persons to Serve as Role Models.' It features engineer Grace Banu, bodybuilder Aryan Pasha, dancer Narthaki Nataraj, community researcher Santa Khurai, university professor Manobi Bandyopadhyay, medical doctor and professor Dr Aqsa Shaikh, news anchor Padmini Prakash, human resource professional Siddhant More, and Vihaan Peethambar, who serves as an Expert Committee Member in the National Council for Transgender Persons.