New Delhi: The parent feedback survey form for Shiv Nadar School has a third option in the section where a child’s gender needs to be specified — “non-binary” — making it, according to reports, the first school in the national capital region to include a third gender.
The survey form is confidential and has been designed to gather feedback from parents on different aspects of the school’s programmes and their “child’s learning journey”.
Non-binary individuals are those who do not exclusively identify as male or female within traditional gender binaries. By incorporating this category into its forms, Shiv Nadar has contributed to the ongoing global discourse regarding the introduction of non-binary gender identities at an early stage in an individual’s life. In the US, debate over ‘identity’ has been a significant feature in this year’s presidential campaign.
Sociologist Janaki Abraham of the Delhi School of Economics — an academic actively involved in the women’s movement — said this was a “wonderful step” because children were identifying as non-binary in schools these days. “It is nice for schools to recognise that children want to identify differently. Even the government recognises the third gender,” she said.
Abraham said the movement’s critique has always been that children have been identified as boys and girls from the time of their birth. “You give pink to girls and blue to boys… It’s wonderful to know that children won’t be flocked into these categories at this school,” she added.
Meanwhile, according to a PTI report, apex child rights body National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has issued a notice to the education departments of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana over the use of the term “non-binary” by Shiv Nadar.
In response, the school said, “As of now, we are not aware of any such notice; hence cannot offer any comment.”
In its notice, NCPCR said that it had received a complaint regarding the use of inappropriate terminology. “As highlighted in the complaint, the school in its Parent’s Feedback Survey has a question on Child’s Gender. The options given are Female, Male and Non-binary. It may be noted that the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 defines and uses the term ‘transgender,” the notice said.
ThePrint reached Shiv Nadar School via email and calls but they refused to comment. The copy will be updated if and when a response is received.
Also read: How Indian schools are failing trans & non-binary teachers — ‘accepted only on the surface’
‘Sceptical about legality’
Trans-rights activist and researcher Krishanu is, however, sceptical about the legality of the “non-binary” gender.
The researcher said non-binary people were a part of the transgender umbrella, who do not identify as cis gender or as binary trans people. “I don’t know what it means in terms of legality since there is no mention of non-binary in the Transgender Act, although we are not really happy about that. But if students want to socially identify as non-binary, that’s great and lovely,” said Krishanu.
Rituparna Borah, co-founder and director of Nazariya, which describes itself as a ‘queer feminist resource group’, however, pointed out that schools must sensitise parents and teachers before conducting such a survey.
“If the school wants to achieve inclusivity, they need to educate parents and teachers first. Without educating them, we can’t do this survey. Some children might have the support of parents but what about those who don’t?” asked Borah, adding that parents and teachers can be a source of threat and violence to children if not properly sensitised.
“We also need to understand that young children might be exploring the idea of what they are in terms of their gender and might be scared of opening up about it. We need to be careful of that and have counsellors who can guide them,” said Borah to ThePrint.
Shiv Nadar’s move has elicited mixed reactions on social media platform X with many calling it “woke ideology”.
One user said by giving the non-binary option, the school was authorising “these western Marxist woke ideas in their schools”, urging parents to keep their children away from this group.
Another user by the name “THE SKIN DOCTOR” asked parents to consider sending their children to Kendriya Vidyalayas and DAVs instead of an “elite school”.
The user said schools doing this to kids as young as three or four years was “nothing but woke garbage being normalised”. “I’m sure such schools run more propaganda for little kids in the name of gender sensitisation,” the user said.
Also read: Fixing gender insensitivity in HCs needs more than a SC handbook. Let’s begin with judges
Parents defend move
In a Gurgaon parents group, where Shiv Nadar has one of its campuses — the other two being in Noida and Faridabad — the decision was appreciated by parents, who called it a “move towards acceptance, social awareness and change”.
One parent said, “Children need to be sensitised about gender differences and personal choices from a young age. Kudos to the school. It will also give an impetus to parents who probably hesitate to acknowledge the gender of their child.”
Another parent, who has a daughter studying at Shiv Nadar, commended the move. “I am a Shiv Nadar parent and a proud one too and very happy that the school embraces the nuances of society and moves along with (the) times,” she added.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)