Odisha’s Transgender Students Enrollment Surges Amidst Growing Inclusivity, ETEducation
Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s formal education system is witnessing a slow but steady rise in enrolment of transgender students.
In the last four academic years — from 2021-22 to 2024-25 — enrolment of such students across both govt and private unaided schools in the state went up from 1 to 74, pointing at the adoption of gender-inclusive frameworks by the institutions.
According to ministry of education reports, although in two digits, enrolment of transgender children in govt schools in Odisha steadily rose in the past five years. In 2024-25, 16 transgender students took admission to govt schools, while their number was 11 in 2023-24, nine in 2022-23 and just 1 in 2021-22, and all are continuing in school. In the same period, 37 transgender children entered private unaided schools.
The admission trend is equally encouraging in higher education. According to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), the number of transgender students enrolled in both colleges and universities was just four in 2020-21 before it rose to 24 in 2021-22 and to 55 in 2022-23. While it was around 20 in 2023-24, in the current year, 21 trans students took admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
While the National Education Policy-2020 categorises transgender children as socio-economically disadvantaged groups and calls for equitable quality education for them, the state govt too extended scholarships.
Sadhana Mishra, transgender activist and social worker, said though the numbers are low given the state’s vast student population in both school and higher education, the enrolment growth is impressive. “The govt’s efforts in the last few years to bring this population to the mainstream were effective in lowering the stigma to a certain extent, more so among parents of trans children,” she added.
Director of social security and empowerment of persons with disabilities department Parul Patawari said the SWEEKRUTI scheme, the guidelines for which were released on Monday, aims to further improve enrolment of transgender children not just in the formal education system but also in professional and technical education by facilitating financial aid for them. Besides, it will push trans people to register for obtaining transgender IDs, which would make them eligible for all govt benefits.
Under the SMILE initiative of the ministry of social justice and empowerment, 2,968 transgender certifications and ID cards were issued in Odisha so far, and 263 applications are pending at the ministry’s end.
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