After offering a third gender status in the application form in the Indian universities, University Grants Commission (UGC) now decides to offer scholarship and fellowship schemes to the transgender candidates.
The recent SC verdict states that the eunuchs, apart from the binary gender should be treated as the third gender in order to safeguard their rights under the Indian Constitution and laws framed by the Parliament and state legislatures.
According to a UGC official, this scholarship for the transgender category is to make sure that no student is deprived of higher education due to lack of funds.
Vivek Anand , CEO, Humsafar Trust, which safeguards and promotes right to the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community states that this act of the UGC will help lot of star performers from the LGBT community belonging to the socially and economically backward communities who drop out due to lack of guidance.
