Delhi tops the list of States with cases of sexual harassment in higher educational institutions, as per the details submitted to the HRD Ministry by the University Grants Commission. As per the startling revelation, 75 cases of sexual harassment have been reported from across the country between April 2014 and March 2015 which includes maximum number of 27 from Delhi.
HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday informed the lok Sabha that the annual return received by UGC about the cases of sexual harassment against women lecturers, professors and research scholars between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015 and on the basis of responses from 84 universities showed that there has been 75 such cases.
The figure in Delhi is 27 followed by Uttar Pradesh 23, Haryana 7, Odisha 6, two each in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Tripura and one each in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Karnataka and Assam. Apart from them, two cases have been received from NIT, one from IGNOU and NEUPA.
“UGC has also reported that complaints have been received against the heads or members of faculties of Punjab University, Jadavpur University, TERI and St Stephens College, Delhi,” Irani said in a written reply.
Cases have also been reported against faculty members of Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar and Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, she said.
While UGC has sent advisory to all the institutes to have a committee and a separate cell to deal with issues of gender based violence, most of the higher educational institutes have reported concurrence, she said.