UNDERSTANDING DEPRESSION AMONG GAY STUDENTS AT HIGHER EDUCATION LEVEL IN WEST BENGAL

Romantic love and sexual attraction between males are known as ‘gay'. At present in India and in many other cultures, all orientations and behaviors other than heterosexuality have been seen as “unnatural”, “abnormal” and “sinful. For this reason when a gay student interacts with family members, peers, teachers and staff, he faces various kinds of problems. It may be discrimination (from society members), neglect, bulling, stigmatization, humiliation and sexual harassment. As a result a depressive situation is created in their mind. In this study the overall level of depression of Gay students at higher education level in West Bengal have been analyzed with regard to their education level, siblings and different caste identity. For the present study 60 male homosexual students studying in graduate and post graduate course of the age group of 18- 24 years are selected as sample from different districts in west Bengal. Back's Depression Inventory (BDI-II) was used as a measuring instrument for data collection regarding gay students' depression. Collected data were analyzed using the statistics- Mean, percentage analysis and Chi- Squire Test were conducts with SPSS programme. The findings of this study indicates that the rate of prevalence of depression among most of gay students found to be ranged from moderate to severe depression level and few students possessed considered minimal range depression and mild depression level. Hypotheses were tested at probability level of 0.05. No significant difference in the level of depression was observed among Gay students with regard to their education level, siblings and different caste identity.