A year following the landmark judgement by the Supreme Court recognising the Indian transgender community as a third gender, there has been another step forward in making this change a reality. NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad has issued its first ever certificate to gender-neutral student Anindita Mukherjee, according to an article by BuzzFeed. Mukherjee is addressed as ‘Mx. Anindita Mukherjee’ in the transcripts issued.
The title ‘Mx.’ (pronounced “mux” or “mix”) does not specify the gender of the individual referred to. It is commonly used by people who identify outside the conventional masculine-feminine gender binary, Mukherjee, the person who made this change in the institution happen, prefers to be referred to as “they” instead of “he” or “she”).
“The beauty of the whole thing lay in the complete lack of any hurdles. I made one request to the university administration, and the change was made. For me, this speaks to the immense power administrations have in making lives easier or more difficult for students. The fact that it is presumed I had to struggle points to how rarely we see them making life easier, and how common it is for meaningless hurdles to be created. This is the moment at which I doff my hat at NALSAR’s present administration,” Mukherjee told BuzzFeed.
This change at NALSAR comes just days after Delhi University (DU) got its first ‘other’ applicant. Sneha Sharma, who formerly identified as Pawan Kumar Asrawat, would be DU’s first candidate who identifies by the third gender, rather than male or female.
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