Do not misquote me, I’m no student welfare expert. I am a law student. Like any other student, I juggle academics with various extra curricular activities. I grew up in Calcutta, in a middle-class household and struggled hard to get a seat at a national law school. When I got the admission, hostel was my only option and I was more than happy shifting there.
Every national law school has students from various cultural, linguistic and class backgrounds. We have the rich ones, who go around narrating tales of European tours. We also have the ones who’ve only travelled for the first time by air while coming to the university.
Let me give you an example. In fact, let me give you several. If you’re a Bengali, you have to be a Communist. If you’re a Punjabi you have to be an alcoholic. And if you’re a Tamilian, no wait, what’s that, it is all known as ‘South Indian’. So, you get the point? Some people do it all in a joking manner. But then, comes the deeper, and the more permanent lines.
People have told me, and I quote, “we can’t work with you because Bengalis are way too loud and dramatic”. No, they knew me for less than a week. No, I did not join any drama group in college. And, no, the only person who hears me ‘talk loud’ when Maa is whining about my missed meals on call, is my roommate. So, you see, these lines, they’re not blurred. These demarcations, aren’t blurred. So, that’s the cultural aspect.
And this, goes on. Where do I even begin with the gender discrimination aspect? The boys get to stay out and hang around in the campus around the clock with no time bar, play volleyball at 3 in the morning, and watch the sunrise from the terraces of the buildings. The girls have to be back in their hostel rooms by 11 pm. And when it comes to the general elections of the student bar council, eight out of ten representatives from my batch, are male. And not to mention, the sexist comments by the authorities, like our own warden.
This one time the warden said something lame and I clapped on that, and she told me, and I quote, “Jaao, chhakka (homophobic slur) ki tarah jaake taali maaro.” When I complained to the administration about the comment, they asked for proof. I had only one witness and no video clips to support my allegation because I don’t go around with my camera on all the time.
It’s not just them, the boys in my class call each other ‘chhakka’ all the time, during fist fights. And the worst part is, they think that it is okay. Because all they did all their lives, was laugh at transgender persons.
Let me give you another perspective. I was talking to a senior from another national law school in north India, and she was talking about her experiences of being out of the closet. She told me stories about how people have reacted to her relationship with another girl. One time, someone wrote “FAGGOT” behind her car while it was parked at campus. The fact that she is unapologetic about her sexuality made her take action and take to social media.
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Different people react differently to a given situation , and the fact that my friend dealt with this in such a manner does not mean other people her age would deal with this in the same way. For some, it could have been a mentally traumatic incident that might take years of therapy to get over.
In case you lost track, we’re law students. We’re the people who will represent you in the years to come. We’re the people who are supposed to be sensitive towards someone’s problems, to be able to sympathise with them and fight for them. And I am sorry if I have disheartened you in any way. Discrimination lies everywhere. Demarcations and lines, we all learn to live with them, within our well-defined own boundaries. And we can do our best and hope the lines get blurred somewhere on the way. Let us hope that we learn to outlive these stereotypes. Let us hope for a better generation, after us, and further.
Srishti Ray is a third-year student at the National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam.
Featured image credit: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay