With the help of the NGO Society for People's Awareness Care and Empowerment (SPACE) under the "Purple Board" project, these schools look to sensitise students about the transgender community.
The NGO reportedly conducted sessions with the school principals and teachers first and then, with schools (Class IX to XII) beginning in October last year. Each school held four or five workshops and had interactions with transgender volunteers and anonymous Q and A sessions too.
When I saw transgender people, I wondered how they behaved differently. I later realised that they are just like us, and that they are merely expressing what they feel. Their feelings are different from the bodies they were born into. They should be able to study in the same schools as the rest of us and feel secure.
The surprising part was that almost every principal admitted that they didn't know what the word "transgender" meant before they were introduced to it through the workshop.
Now that these schools have been certified as trans-friendly, they will soon build gender-neutral washrooms and set-up anti-trans-bullying committee as well. Tis project is also being supported by the Delhi government's Directorate of Education and Netherlands' Embassy.
A school official was quoted as saying,
We have academic qualifications, but we were ignorant about the transgender community. We need to bring that community within the work culture and provide them with skills.
Source - BT