Guidelines on safe environment for women in higher education institutions in place: MoS Education, Subhas Sarkar
New Delhi: The union minister of state for education, Subhas Sarkar, on Monday said that University Grants Commission (UGC) has developed the “guidelines on basic facilities and amenities for safe, secure environment for women in higher educational institutions". Sarkar said that all such institutions have been mandated to have an internal complaint committee under the provision of Section 4 of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
“In order to improve the safety of all women, including students and employees, and to provide a healthy and secure atmosphere for them on the campus in higher educational institutions, UGC has notified UGC (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015, which being statutory in nature, are binding on universities and colleges," Sarkar in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. Advisories have been issued related to maintenance of safe working environment for female employees as per the Act.
Seminars/awareness workshops are being conducted for gender sensitization in higher educational institutes. He informed that UGC has directed all universities and colleges to submit the data of annual return on cases of sexual harassment and constitute an Internal Complaint Committee, and fill an online compliance of Gender Audit at SAKSHAM web portal.
In addition to this, UGC has set up a toll free number--1800-111-656 for registration of grievances related to women and sexual harassment. The guidelines are available on the UGC website at www.ugc.gov.in.
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