BITS PILANI

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION
(COURSE NO: G531)

PROJECT ON

Awareness about Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

SUBMITTED TO
Dr. Jayashree Mahesh

SUBMITTED BY
GROUP-9

Garvit Jain 2019H1490814P

Prachi 2019H1490825P
Shivam Mishra 2019H1490841P
Sreelakshmi Mohan 2019H149062P
Yashwanth Chinta 2019H149049P

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project entitled, ‘Awareness about Gender Identity and Sexual
Orientation’ submitted by Group 9 in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of
Masters in Business Administration in at Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani is
an authentic work carried out by them under my supervision and guidance.

To the best of my knowledge, the matter embodied in the project has not been submitted to
any other University / Institute for the award of any Degree or Diploma.

Date: 22nd November, 2019

Dr.Jayashree Mahesh Assistant Professor,

Department of Management,
BITS Pilani

ACKNOWLEGMENT

We offer many thanks to Dr. Jayashree Mahesh (Assistant Professor, Department of

Management), for her constant support and guidance throughout the project, without which
the project wouldn’t have been executed in a seamless manner. She also guided and shaped
this project with her critical questions, analyzing problems and their mitigated solutions. The
supervision and support that she gave truly helped the progression and smoothness of the

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Project. At last we would like to express gratitude towards our friends and BITS PILANI
residents who directly or indirectly helped us to complete this project.

GROUP 9

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is the outcome of a study on the awareness about gender identity and sexual
orientation among the students from BITS PILANI, Pilani campus. Our study showed that the
level of knowledge and understanding among students and staff on LGBTQ+ issues is uneven
and, in many cases, found inadequate. People from the LGBTQ+ are found to be exposed to
discrimination and mockery because of some cultural or religious misapprehensions. Further,
there is no official policy of the institution, that recognizes the community and provide any
protection to any amount of violence, discrimination and hate they face on the campus.
We have conducted a survey to understand the awareness level of the students over the
gender identity and sexual orientation and their state of mind when it comes to issues
concerned with the LGBTQ+ community. We got many responses that support the
community and many more responses which showed us that students are very less aware
about the issues. We also got few responses filled with hate and disgust with respect to the
community which was alarming.
After unbiased study of the responses, we have arrived at conclusion that, students from the
LGBTQ+ community still faces discrimination from fellow students and others. Hence, we

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came up with few recommendations, which would address the issues for short-term and
would help in creating long term solutions. Some of the recommendations are to recognize
the community and give a face to ANCHOR, a closed-door group of people from the
community and create a separate cell to address the mental health of the students from the
community and institute to work closely with MPower for the betterment of lives of the
students from the community.
As sensitive issues like this will take long time for people to change their attitude, we are
confident that a diverse institute like BITS PILANI would identify this issue as a serious
problem and work on the recommendations we gave with great compassion and recognize the
LGBTQ+ community as the integral part of the institute.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SR.NO PARTICULARS PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION 6

2. OBJECTIVE 7

3. SCOPE 8

4. SAMPLE DETAILS 8

5. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS 9

6. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS 15

7. RECOMMENDATIONS 19

8. CONCLUSION 21

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1. INTRODUCTION

Sense of Identity is one of the basic and fundamental needs of any individual. It strengthens
one’s character, builds self-confidence and helps in understanding one’s strengths to become
a stronger and better person. Overall it should lead to a positive impact on the person’s life.
But, the concept of Gender Identity and sexual orientation are taboo with which most
individuals are uncomfortable. Identity and sexuality are important aspects of people as it
defines who they are as a human being.
Gender Identity is a personal concept of identifying one-self as a male, female, both or
neither. In other words, it is how they feel and perceives themselves when it comes to gender.
Whereas, sexual orientation can be described as how an individual is attracted to others
sexually and romantically. It is an emotional state and may or may not change over time.
The issue of Gender identity and sexual orientation had been a topic of debate for over a
decade in India due to which people from LGBTQ+ community have faced many challenges.
The painful change from enjoying positions of respect and power during Moghuls and even
before, to be casted out as “unnatural and breach of public decency” during the British Era
they have faced many atrocities and discrimination. Until recently, people and society on the
whole were not open about this issue.
As per the verdict which came out in Sept 6, 2018, Supreme Court commented that
consensual sex is natural and people have no control over it. People came out from the dark,
to identify themselves from the LGBTQ+ community and be open about it. But nothing can
change overnight, especially the attitude of the people towards LGBTQ+ community. Though
the people are openly coming out over their gender identity and sexual orientation, they are
abused and face mockery from their own families, friends and the society as well which
severely impacts mental and physical health of the individuals from the LGBTQ+
community.

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2. OBJECTIVE

Being one of the most diversified institutions in the country, BITS homes about 4000
students from first degree to higher degree and research scholars coming from all parts of the
country with different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. BITS also have a considerable
population which belongs to LGBTQ+ community, which is unverified and unaccounted for.
As students have different cultural associations, which makes them feel they belong to and
can have a significant sense of identity, students from the LGBTQ+ community should also
feel the same sense of identity.
The objective of this project is to find out how comfortable are the people from the LGBTQ+
community about their gender identity and their sexual orientation and also how much safe
they feel to be open about it. In addition to this, through this project, we also aim to provide
some recommendations which if implemented, could help change the lives of the students
from the LGBTQ+ community.

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3. SCOPE

The scope of this project was limited to First degree students, Higher degree students, and
Research scholars of BITS Pilani, Pilani campus. Considering the objective of the project, it
can be extended to the other campuses of BITS Pilani.

4. SAMPLE DETAILS

The data consisted of 226 responses which comprised of 176 First degree students, 45 higher
degree students and 5 Research scholars. Besides the online survey, we conducted 20
interviews that were both telephonic and personal.

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5. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

Majority of our respondents i.e 173 out of 234 are of either 19-21 age group or 16-18 age
group. We can infer that majority of students are from First degree or dual degree.

While asking about Gender, Major respondents were Male (78.8%) followed by females
(17.3%). Few people preferred not to say anything about gender and one person was ashamed
to confess. Here, we got one comment based on religious factor as well, i.e “Allah ka banda”.
This gives the essence of religious factors associated while studying our attitude towards
people.

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Majority of the respondents were from first degree while only 45 were from higher degree,
this shows the non-willingness to discuss such serious issues by students.

187 respondents said straight while 25 people came out to be from LGBTQ community. This
shows presence of this minority in Pilani campus. We met many more people from the
community, who felt comfortable to talk to us after a talk conducted by Ms. Anjali Gopalan.

This data shows the Presence of cultural diversity, which is also a sample prototype of
country and this project can be taken on higher level as well.

Question 1

This question was to know the compatibility of students being around students from
LGBTQ+ community on a scale of 1-5, 1 being least and 5 being most comfortable. In

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response we got an average of 3.59, and a standard deviation of 1.32. This shows many
people in campus don’t feel comfortable being around LGBTQ+.

Question 2

In this question, we wanted to know how much students agree with general rumours about
LGBTQ+. While most of them said they don’t agree, but a significant number (40) of
students said, they did agree to this. This is a matter of attention as these rumours are the
main source of discrimination. We kept “I don’t know” on scale 0, and strongly agree on
scale 4, we got average of 1.41, which shows students are having lack of awareness.

Question 3

In question 3, we asked the views of student about different sexual orientation, majority of
students have no knowledge about orientation and many of them have wrong information

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about sexual orientation. This situation is alarming and needs to be rectified by sensitizing
students.
Question 4

This question was about the basic rights of LGBTQ+, about marriage, having children etc.
Though, majority of students supported basic rights but 50+ students out of 227 were against
of these rights.

Question 5.

In question 5, we asked about the environment around students i.e friends and family and
responses turned to be a strong nail in the coffin. Average was 3.04, i.e students strongly
agree that their family don’t speak about LGBTQ+ people and nor do they accept them. They
somewhat speak about LGBTQ+ people to their friends.

Question 6

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This question came from the point of discrimination, i.e. using the word ‘gay’, ‘fag’ or
’queer’ in a negative way and majority students accepted that either always, often or
sometimes they used gay in a negative way. This shows the beginning of bullying.

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6. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

As part of the survey form that was shared, the person had an option to share their contact
details in case they would be interested to give interviews regarding the problems that they
might have faced because they were part of the community or any experience good or bad
regarding the same. We received some twenty odd contacts that were ready to talk to us over
phone, email or personally. We conducted these interviews in the mode they wanted keeping
in mind their safety and comfort as we didn’t want them to feel any more attacked or insecure
than they already were. The problems they shared with us were everything we had always
heard or seen on the internet.
The first person we interviewed was a male bisexual first degree student. He told us how his
friends were insensitive to social issues and that included LGBTQ+ issues. They would mock
the community and make fun of the plights of the members the community that would be in
the news. This behaviour by his friends scared the interviewee so much that he had not come
out about his sexuality to his peers as he thought they would not accept him. Their insensitive
behaviour aside, his peers used terms associated with the community like gay, chakka which
is a Hindi word for transgender, meetha a Hindi word for gay etc. in a derogatory way. All of
this and more had led him and a few more of our interviewees to not accept their sexuality
and identity openly. Moreover, there is no one to take up complaints that they have against
such bullying.
Another female interviewee told us that she was very open with her sexuality. She had
availed the counselling services that the institution offers for her personal reasons. One thing
she mentioned that was important to our survey was the behaviour of the college counsellor
Mr. Noble Emerson Scott. She told us that during her interactions she had realised that he
was homophobic. When this topic arose in their conversation, he defined homosexuality as
unnatural and that the reason females are attracted to other females is because they are closer
to their mothers or sisters and that the comfort, they feel in their presence is the attraction
they feel to other females. She also told us that he would try to hug her after the sessions or
high five her constantly. Another male interviewee, who went to the counsellor to deal with
the problems he faced that included the stress that came with being in the closet and not
coming out, also told us the same regarding Mr. Scott regarding his homophobia.

Another male first-degree student who identified himself as gay told us that he never came
out to anyone in the campus. And yet everyone around him assumed that he was gay and
made fun of it. This was because he didn’t confirm to the traditional features that our society
defines as masculine. His feminine features made him the centre of homophobic jokes by
everyone around him. He told us that he used to be a good student who got good grades, but
the bullying and jokes made on his expense had taken such a toll on his mental health that his
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academic performance had declined since he came to the campus. He was fighting depression
due to the discrimination he faced.
One interview that we conducted showed us that people who needed to be made aware of
gender identity and sexual orientation was not only the students in the campus but their
parents too. One male interviewee told us that his mother, who was a psychologist herself,
refused to accept homosexuality and termed it as unnatural. This notion made him think that
what he felt really was unnatural and that he didn’t deserve to be part of the so called normal
society. The deep-rooted feeling of being different, and not in a good way, hindered him from
accepting this and coming out to his friends and family.
One interview made us realise that discrimination was not only against people who were in
the community, but by the people who were in the community themselves. One interviewee
told us that his looks and complexion was something that people had made fun of for the
longest time. Now, with his sexuality it was just an additional reason to make fun of him.
What affected him the most was people from the community who made fun of his
appearance. This made him insecure, not only with people who didn’t understand his
sexuality, with people whom he thought would accept him as he is.

The interviews that we conducted gave us an inside look to the minds of the people who are
not a part of the LGBTQ+ community and the problems faced by the members of the
community here in the campus. Bullying by peers is so extreme that people slip into
depression that is affecting their studies and grades. Students join this institute after working
very hard and if the social stigma associated with their identity is bringing their grades down,
then this issue needs to be addressed.
People in positions to help students, like the college counsellor, need to be sensitive about
issues that come to him that affect the students’ mental health and not mock them or tell them
that their choices are unnatural. It was also evident that it wasn’t just the students who needed
to be educated about the community, but also the parents. The mother who was a
psychologist herself should have known better than talk about homosexuality as a disease.
Support from their family is one of the few things that a student can fall back on even if his or
her peers pull them down. But when that support is not available, it could cause more
problems for the students.
Another issue that the community faces is an absence of authority that deals with their
complaints. Students who are bullied by peers because of their gender or sexual orientation
have no proper channel or community to whom they can go with their issues. The students
who face alienation from peers or discrimination slip into depression that hinders their
academics along with their mental health. The complaints are not taken seriously, and the
bullies are not punished. Strict actions should be defined and taken whenever a genuine
complaint is lodged.
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We also saw cases where people in the community discriminate against people from the
community on the basis of colour or looks. As a minority who is fighting discrimination in
the first place, there needs to be awareness and acceptance within the community. Students
who open up to the community in hopes of finding a fit where everyone else seems different,
a mockery from people they thought would understand them could worsen their mental
health.

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7. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Filling a complaint against the visiting councillor, Mr. Noble Scott Emerson.

This has already been initiated on our end as we have reported this to the Chief Warden and
HODs of various departments which are involved with the organization GENDER
CHAMPIONS. We will be filling a written petition in the near future.
2. Re-instating Anchor in BITS and giving it a face.

Anchor is the official body of BITS Pilani which is an anonymous safe place for the people
of community, but it has been not much active as of 2013. So, we are planning to re-instate
the body and this time we plan to give it a face i.e. last time it was completely anonymous so
as to protect people of community against discrimination and bullying. Because of which
people who wanted to be a part were hesitant and confused so as to how to be a part of it and
whether to trust it or not. To avoid ambiguity and build trust, the panel responsible for
operations and who are comfortable and strong enough to be out in the open will be made the
face of the body.
3. Organizing various activities to sensitize people about the community.

We plan to organize different events all years round. The first event “Talk by Ms. Anjali
Gopalan” was a sterling hit amongst the people from community and allies alike. Ms Anjali
Gopalan is founding member of The Naz Trust and has been featured in Time’s 100 Most
Influential People’s List in 2012. Her talk opened new paths and ideas for us on how to create
a road map and go about our mission of sensitizing people about the struggles of people
belonging to the community.
We also have some movies, interactive sessions and other events in pipeline for next year.
4. Establishing a cell catering to mental health needs of people from community.

A cell equipped and established only for the needs of people belonging to community or
people who are still questioning their identity and orientation has been proposed. This will
also be dependent on the compromise and readiness of the institute but we are positive about
this.
5. Counselling Parents and students on the day of orientation itself.

This is one of the major recommendations of our project as this serves multiple purposes.
Firstly, students will get comfortable that the institute is a safe place for them to be
themselves. Also, the parents will be informed about the issues and discrimination faced by
students from community. This will make things easy for students if they want to come out to
their parents. For others, it will be a general informative session which sensitizes them
against the discrimination faced by people from community.
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 6. Collaboration with Mpower to further identify bullied and depressed students and to
work towards the betterment of their lives.

Mpower is a newly established body in BITS which caters to the psychological needs of
students. In collaboration with Mpower, we would like to identify students who are
struggling with their identity or are being bullied for their identity or orientation and provide
them the specialized help that they require.

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8. CONCLUSION

It can be concluded from the results that though we all claim that we are progressive about
our ideology, somewhere in our minds, we still are primitive over this issue. Not only there is
a need for awareness of the people about the LGBTQ+ community and issues faced by them,
but also as an esteemed institution and because of the sheer size of the community we need to
build up confidence in the members of the community to accept who they are and be
supportive about it for their better mental health.
The main reason for the members of the community not coming forward about their issues, is
that they fear they would face mockery and abuse from the fellow students. If the suggested
recommendations were to be considered by the management and implemented, we could see
a positive change in the lives of people from the community and it could reflect in the attitude
of other students how they see them and accept them as their own. Though some of the
recommendations are a long shot, but change must start with a single step.

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