In February 2017, Himanshu Singh, an IIM Kozhikode student, started a group in his campus to talk about the LGBTQ community. He, along with a few friends, chalked out the details and co-founded Umeed, with the hope that their word will spread across Universities, and the community will be treated equally.
Three months and a tremendous response later, Umeed, along with IIM Ahmedabad, is on the cusp of organising an online educational series around LGBTQ concepts, starting 1st June (Pride Month); the event is called Queer pe Charcha. The club is collaborating with other campuses and their LGBTQ clubs.
This is the first time in India that all the big colleges are coming together and standing up for the LGBTQ equality. We believe that together we all can bring a huge change. We have been following colleges that are now coming together for the cause – IIM Kozhikode, IIM Ahmedabad, BITS Pilani, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Gandhinagar and IISc Bangalore – among them.Himanshu Singh to The Quint
We will pick up one topic each day – for example: Sex, Gender, Orientation, LGBT Rights, Legality, LGBTQ policies at workplace, International LGBTQ spaces, LGBT and Religion, myth-busters etc. We are in talks with experts to build content around it.Himanshu Singh to The Quint
Himanshu Singh conceptualized Umeed and the seminar in 2016 when he came out on social media. The comments that he received on his Facebook post were both ill-informed and silly.
‘People asked me if being gay was “normal”’, Himanshu Singh told The Quint.
There is obviously a huge lacunae in our society vis-a-vis the LGBTQ community, and this initiative comes as a breath of fresh air. We wish the seminar and the community all the luck for their future endeavours.
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