A matter of pride: How five LGBTQIA+ students passed Class 10

Time of India

2 days ago

It's a drizzly 4pm, but that's not why there's a rainbow on the first floor of a municipal school near Sion station. The sun casting seven colours through a prism is a perennial fixture on a wall chart inside this year-old evening learning centre, nestled up a flight of metal stairs within D S High School.
The painting is one of many quiet affirmations of the space's inclusivity. "Outside, we face a lot of ridicule for our effete ways," says 43-year-old Vikas (name changed), who dropped out of school in 1997. "But here, teachers don't discriminate or mock us for using phrases like 'aga bai'."
We are at Masoom's learning centre for LGBTQIA+ students at Sion, a safe space that will celebrate its first batch of SSC passouts on July 29.
Vikas, an outreach worker, is one of its five students— ranging from health workers to courier personnel—who cleared their SSC exams through the National Open School and are now studying for HSC, drawn by the centre's promise of free education, pens, notebooks, groceries and a shot at a stable job.
"I didn't expect to fetch 64%," laughs Vikas, surprised to have stood third in his class.
The idea for the centre was sparked by Seema Ali, a transgender student who made headlines in 2022 as a standout from Masoom's night school initiative.
Born in a small Maharashtra town, Seema faced family rejection and community abuse before moving to Mumbai. After years of begging at signals, she joined a night school through the NGO, passed her SSC, and landed a job. At a panel last year, she pointed out how many queer individuals—often relegated to begging or sex work—would benefit from evening education centres.
Her story helped rally support but the beginning wasn't easy.
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Volunteers reached out to NGOs and gharanas to encourage enrolment but met with hesitation. "Members of the community tend to prioritise earning over learning," says Masoom's Sandeep Suryawanshi, who made several home visits. "They would say, 'We earn almost Rs 300 in an hour on the train. Why should we forego that?'" recalls Nikita Ketkar, CEO of Masoom, which had aimed to enrol 60 students. "We only managed to convince 16.
Of those, 11 attended regularly and five passed."
Aliza, class topper at 74%, is the only trans woman in this batch. Averting the gaze of commuters at Sion station, she would drop in for classes in Hindi, Home Science, Data Entry, Painting, and Business Studies, taught every evening by Abhishek Yadav, Sonali Pawar, and Nitin Pawar.
Kalyan-based Mahendra, 29, who works as a part-time courier executive, set high expectations as the most diligent student.
"Despite having to travel all over the city, he would drop in to our centre almost every day," says Suryawanshi. "I failed tenth when I was 14," says Mahendra who delivers Ayurvedic medicines for Rs 100 to Rs 200 a pop. "At times, the customers would adjust timings for my sake. At times, the teachers would wait for me," he recalls.
"I want a job that helps me afford my dream—my own house in Mumbai," says the second-ranker, who lives in a Rs 7,000 rental in Kalyan.
For Vikas, who last attempted SSC in 1997 or 1998— he's not sure—catching up wasn't easy. "In your youth, you retain more," says the aspiring makeup artist, who found Business Studies especially eye-opening. "I want to start my own business and I now know how to," says the 43-year-old.
Though singing is his first love, Ulwe's 23-year-old Pranay (name changed) would be content with a secure govt job. Having dropped out in 2015 to support his ailing relatives, he cooked, swept and swabbed at six to eight homes for years in Navi Mumbai.
"Friends advised me against it, but I had to make a living," he says. Recently he quit after a doctor told him about a gap in his spine.
He now works with Humsafar Trust, raising HIV/AIDS awareness in the LGBTQIA+ community. "It's not easy. The young resist the message... until the disease gets them," he says. "It would help if the govt took the initiative to raise awareness about the community and its issues through railway announcements, etc," says Vikas, who faced unkind comments on his way to class.
"As a society, we still have a long way to go," he adds, before entering the room with the perennial rainbow to prepare for Class 12.
To enrol, call on 8655727370 or 8655086753