Anchor is the first of its kind, BITSians only group for Queer, Questioning & Supporting members.
It was founded in 2012 to raise awareness about LGBTQ+ issues and has evolved to cover issues of Gender & Sexuality – becoming the Gender and Sexuality Cell, led by BITSian students. It all began with a play organised by the founding members on the theme of homosexuality and has since grown to include students from all three Indian campuses – Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad.
What do we do?
Ours is an attempt to start a dialogue across campuses about gender normalities and sexuality which, regrettably, is still a tabooed subject – not exactly a sign of the progressive culture we expect and should promote. We are a safe space and an active listening platform for queer students. We provide a forum for BITS students and Alumni to talk about their experiences and share their opinions and artworks or anything related to gender or sexuality. We conduct various awareness sessions, webinars, workshops and live interviews with allies and people from the community.
This group also becomes important because we all will be working with people of different temperaments post graduation, sexuality being one of the major points of difference. In that sense, understanding and having a dialogue becomes imperative. Due to lack of spaces that facilitate this dialogue, most of us remain ignorant about the same. This group seeks to address that issue.
Current Situation
The activity of the group has fluctuated over the years and shifted online mainly owing to changes to Section 377. In June 2020, few students from BITS Pilani took the steps to make Anchor more active in terms of visibility, so as to continue with our aim – which is to provide a safe space for students of BITS Pilani. Currently, Anchor has First Degree students, Higher Degree students and PhD Scholars across all three Indian campuses and is mainly functioning online due to the pandemic. We also have a network of BITSian Alumni who have contributed to Anchor in the past. We continue to advocate for equal rights and work towards creating an environment where no student should hide behind false labels in the fear of getting judged or bullied.
Here’s hoping that this small effort will create a difference, with the realization that if this forum helps even one person in any which way, we can consider it a job well done.
Cheers!
Anchor - Gender and Sexuality Cell, BITS Pilani 