Task force for gender sensitisation unit

In its report presented to HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju, the task force, set up by UGC, also recommended providing counselling services on a full time basis and having adequate infrastructure such as lighting in campuses, reliable public transport toilet facilities and provision of girl's hostel facility in higher education institutions.

"Set up a gender sensitisation unit within the UGC. The unit will assist and support universities and colleges to meet mandatory requirements to end gender based violence and harassment," the task force said in its recommendation.

Raju said gender sensitisation issue should be raised at every forum and at every meeting to drive home the point about the sensitive issue.

The report named "Saksham" was given by the task force set to review the "measures for ensuring safety of women in campuses and programmes for gender sensitisation".

The task force, chaired by member UGC Meenakshi Gopinath, has come up with several fundamental and far reaching recommendations which are based on the principles of Equality and Justice guaranteed by the Constitution, a UGC statement said.

It is also based on Rights to Dignity, Bodily Autonomy and Integrity enunciated in the bill of Rights to Women in the Justice Verma committee report of January 2013 and are in consonance with the Vishaka guidelines, the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act 2013 and Criminal Amendment Bill 2013, the statement added.

The recommendations were based on findings which revealed that gender sensitisation emerged as the weakest aspect in the process of addressing issues on campuses.

In its recommendation, the task force also said that all higher educational institutions must formulate guidelines for dealing with sexual harassment in their respective institutions and setting up of anti-sexual harassment committees in all the institutions.