As part of students learning at Beyond 8, an alternative to conventional schooling, they have come to understand the importance of going beyond the bounds of traditional academics.
As part of the students’ project, six students have co-authored a book titled There’s Room for Everyone. The book covers the different ways in which young people can do their bit to ensure a fair and inclusive society. There are four chapters in the book – an introduction about the problematic concept of the ‘other’, stories of pride, what the LGBTQIA+ community wished you knew, and a chapter on introspection.
It was quite evident that today’s generation felt passionate about the integration of the LGBTQIA+ community into mainstream society. While the Indian judicial system has paved the way for landmark judgments in support of this community, much remains to be done at the grassroots level. People often believe that important issues such as diversity and inclusion are up to adults to solve. But these students beg to differ. Swaminathan Ramachandran, one of the authors, says, “As part of our learning, we got an opportunity to be part of the gender awareness module for about three months. Post the programme, there were quite a few realisations within the student group. We as a team felt that spreading this knowledge could be meaningful for both, the LGBTQI+ community and us. We wanted to instill empathy into society and that was our greatest inspiration. We had created a basic sketch of the book during the first week of preparation itself. The later weeks were used on reading articles, court judgments and following social media pages that were relevant to the topic and our purpose. The works delegated by the team matched the interests and strengths of the students.”
The 18-year-old feels that acknowledging the issue is the first step to accepting change. “Youngsters should get opportunities to interact with the LGBTQIA+ society with an open mind. They should also raise and be aware of the misrepresentation of this community; this has been dealt with in great detail in the book. Inclusivity is an attitude and not just a concept. Learning about inclusivity is a practical experience and something that cannot be left to exam papers and textbooks. Learning about inclusivity at a young age will help students to open up their minds more quickly and understand them. In a world that is so dynamic, in terms of social systems, learning about the LGBTQIA+ community is paramount, especially at a young age to become relevant global citizens,” he says.
Another author of the book, Athreya Sunil tells us that the book will teach the reader how to empathise with the community. “The contents are mostly about what the LGBTQIA+ community is and about its history. There are more elaborations on the topics mentioned and also a few stories that pertain to the LGBTQIA+ community. First of all, raising awareness can have a really heavy impact. Once they’re educated on the topic, they will become accepting of the fact that people love a certain way or identify themselves differently from what the ‘usual society’ finds ‘normal’,” the 14-year-old points out.
