Months after submitting a proposal seeking gender-neutral washrooms at the campus, the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) will be deciding on its establishment after the student elections in August.
Gender neutral washrooms to be under the purview of WGDC
As per an official at TISS, the plans to create washrooms will be under the purview of the Women and Gender Development Cell (WGDC) at the institute.
Accommodation assumes priority over other issues at TISS
Accommodation of incoming students at the campus has assumed top priority at the institute amid a growing space crunch and has also gained prominence over issues like the ones being advocated by the institute’s non-conforming cohort.
"Our focus is now on fixing the accommodation for the students. After the student elections are done by August, the WGDC will look into the matter regarding the washrooms," stated the official.
Students' Union laments delay
Though the institute had not decided on any specific timeline to start the process for gender-neutral washrooms, Pratik Permey, the first gender-fluid tribal Students' Union President at TISS Mumbai told The Free Press Journal that they had not received any update on the matter after submitting the concept back in April 2023.
“We had urged for two washrooms, one on the old campus and one on the new campus. We had also submitted designs to the institute concerning the same but didn’t receive any update on it since April 2023,” stated Pratik, who is the outgoing president and will be in the position until a new student body is elected.
“This also shows that the administration was procrastinating on the issue and didn’t feel gender-neutral washrooms were important enough to be considered earlier,” added Pratik.
The FPJ didn't receive responses to the questions, concerning gender neutral washrooms, sent to the student affairs department at TISS till the time of publishing this story.
Gender neutral washrooms major step after hostels in 2018
The issue of gender-neutral washrooms, which will largely cater to queer, Lgbtq+ community at TISS is significant for the students union since gender non-conforming students were allocated a hostel space on the ground floor of the institute, back in September 2018.
According to Pratik, 18 students currently reside in the gender-neutral hostel space with over 200 students supporting various causes of TISS’s gender-neutral community through the institute’s Queer Alliance, an LGBTQ+ friendly organisation.
