GUWAHATI: In a first of its kind, a gender-neutral toilet has come up at the Tezpur University in Assam. The initiative was taken by the Department of Social Work.
The move marks the occasion of Pride Month and is aimed at creating awareness about a gender-neutral environment.
With this, there are three gender-neutral toilets in the Department of Social Work. One for the staff, the other one for students at the Humanities and Social Sciences buildings on the first floor.
The initiative was a collaborative effort by the Department of Social Work.
The idea started only as a conversation among the faculty members, but once everyone resonated with its positivity, including the Vice-Chancellor, the idea was put into action.
Speaking exclusively to G Plus about the initiative, Assistant Professor Namami Sharma from the Department of Social Work said, "So what exactly happened was, we had a guest over for a workshop at our department. And our guest was looking for a place to change clothes. But he wasn't comfortable going into the men's washroom. That's when the discussion got triggered about the need for a space where people who do not identify with the binary will feel comfortable."
Explaining the initiative Sharma said, "And eventually, we came across several cases where there are boys in the boys' hostel who felt a certain level of discomfort in using the men's washroom. Having a gender-neutral residential space is far-fetched at this point but to begin with, we can of course have a toilet. We flagged the issue of the requirement of a gender-neutral toilet to our vice-chancellor who was very supportive of it."
"We looked for several spaces in the University for the same and eventually decided to turn our staff toilet into a gender-neutral toilet. But we also needed a space for the students too hence, we turned the first floor of the HSS building of the University," Sharma told G Plus.
She also said that the matter was discussed with the student council of the University, who was also in favour of the move.
"We are elated that we got it right at the beginning of the pride month," she further added.
The toilet got functional on June 2.
