As the country is cheering the Supreme Court's iconic judgment decriminalising Section 377, the members of Umeed - IIM Kozhikode, an LGBTQ resource group inside IIM Kozhikode is now confident that they can become a formal group. "We're hopeful that the club becomes formal and we are working towards it. The Supreme Court verdict is a good step forward," says Himanshu Singh, the founder of the group, who graduated from IIMK in 2015.
Overwhelmed by the judgment, Himanshu tells us how he was in the office when the news broke and he couldn't control his tears. "I couldn't console myself. It's only when you put yourself in those shoes that you find out how difficult it is to live this life," he says.
What prompted Himanshu to start this resource group? He narrates the story. "I am someone who came out two years ago through social media and the post about me coming out, went viral. Later, I established this group for spreading awareness about the community," says Himanshu. Initially, there was a lot of questions and frowns that Himanshu and his friends had to face. But he observes that every year, the group has new students joining as members and mentors.
Ever since its inception in 2017, the members have been trying to formalise the group, but the institute's administration wasn't in support of them. "We decided to take it forward as a students' collective anyway. Moreover, we do have faculty members. All the faculty support us," says Himanshu. After Umeed was established, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore also established their own support groups for the community — IIM Ally and QUEst IIMB respectively.
The student members of Umeed also held a meeting today to discuss the verdict, the way forward and how it is going to have an impact on them, with the hope of gaining more support from the administration.
