The 15 Jharkhand institutions mentioned in University Grants Commission (UGC) ‘Saksham’ report prepared after reviewing ‘Measures for Ensuring the Safety of Women and Programmes for Gender Sensitisation on Campuses’ seems an inaccurate ‘information’ as neither the UGC nor the State Universities are aware on carrying out survey by the framed ‘Task Force’ prior to this report making exercise.
A section of the 235 pages report clearly mentions that “UGC received information from the UGC director of its Eastern Regional office (ERO) in Kolkata that a special letter with a copy of the questionnaire was sent to all the colleges of the Eastern region, with a list of these colleges attached”. Surprisingly, when the Pioneer enquired about the same to ERO’s Additional Joint Secretary Mohammed Arif on Tuesday, he said, “We were never assigned any work for this data gathering. How is it possible that our office is ‘mentioned’ in this report! Hopefully, UGC headquarter people have themselves conducted the survey.”
“I have never visited Jharkhand for this purpose. Can you please tell me the names of the universities thereIJ For confirmation I will have to go through ‘files and documents’. Please give me sometime,” UGC vice-chairman Dr H Devaraj said. Even officials of various Jharkhand State Universities enquired the details of ‘Saksham’. “What is this report onIJ UGC mentions on conducting survey for this report...it must have been a formality because we are hearing this name for the first time. Please send us a copy so that we can implement at our own level,” said a top university officers.
The list of these state universities includes Ranchi University (RU), Kolhan University (KU), Vinoba Bhave University (VBU), Sido Kanhu Murmu University (SKMU) and Nilamber Pitamber University (NPU). Also, Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) and Central University of Jharkhand (CUJ) sounded ‘unaware’ on any such ‘report’.
There are 10 recommendations given by the Task Force of this report formation. It includes ‘Setting up a Gender Sensitisation Unit’, ‘The Problem of Protectionism’, ‘Gender Sensitisation, ‘Sexual Harassment’, ‘Preparation of a UGC booklet’, ‘Preparation of courses and modules’, ‘University Services and Infrastructure’, ‘Women’s Studies Centres’, ‘Recommended Projects’ and ‘Regulatory Aspects’. The communication gap between Jharkhand institutions and UGC is probably a hurdle as media statements say that UGC chairman Ved Prakash had announced of sending the letter of directives of this report to all the higher education institutions. But, none of the State universities have ‘received this letter’, confirmed sources.
The purpose of ‘directives’ is to implement all the guidelines of women safety based on the principles of Equality and Justice guaranteed by Constitution and draw on the Rights to Dignity, Bodily Autonomy and Integrity, enunciated in the Bill of Rights for Women in the Justice Verma Committee Report of January 2013.