Talk on ‘Educating Youth on Gender Identity’ at Digboi College

 STAFF CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH: A talk on ‘Educating Youth on Gender Identity’ was organised by the Department of English, in association with the Internal Complaint Committee and IQAC, Digboi College recently at the College auditorium. The talk, delivered by Rituparna Neog, Founder-Director, Akam Foundation: towards equality, an intersectional queer feminist, a social activist, queer rights activist, story-teller and a poet, was attended by an overwhelming number of students from the college and a large number of teaching faculty.

Rituparna deliberated upon how gender and sex is assigned at birth, the societal expectations placed on individuals, the complex ways that gender institutionalized in society and how gender cannot be confined to a binary and, also, how the deviation from the established norms and societal expectations poses challenges to the individuals concerned. She talked about the various initiatives she was actively involved in and called upon the college community to facilitate a gender neutral washroom, so that students with different gender identities do not come across untoward incidents. Queries and questions from the audience, during the interaction session, were ably addressed by Rituparna. The event was hosted by Baby Ritu Phukan, from the Department of English, who introduced the speaker to the audience. Deepa Sarma Borthakur, Chairperson of the Internal Complaint Committee, spoke about how a discourse on issues of gender identity was the need of the hour. Dalia Baruah, a IVth Sem English Honours student offered the vote of thanks.

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