http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/for-safe-campuses/article5744948.ece
UGC task force report on campus security out
a must:Adequate and well-trained security, including a good balance of
women security staff, is necessary in college and university campuses.
The report of the University Grants Commission (UGC)
task force on reviewing security measures in educational institutions is
now out. The 250-page report of the 10-member task force, set up in
December 2012 after the gang-rape of a girl in ×New Delhi caused nationwide
outrage, was released on February 12. UGC Chairman Ved Prakash, in a
letter dated February 18, has written to all UGC-funded and non-funded
higher educational institutions to implement the recommendations of the
report.
Titled ‘Saksham’, the report suggests basic infrastructure requirements such as lighting and public transport, while also recommending counselling services and gender sensitisation. Significantly, the report also says the ×National Assessment
and Accreditation Council (NAAC), in its assessment and accreditation
procedures, “must build in an essential gender audit component as part
of the evaluation process.”
While the ×University
of Pune, with 800 affiliated colleges, has already announced that the
recommendations will be implemented, Bangalore University (BU), which
was in the eye of a storm after a student was allegedly gang-raped on
its vast, densely wooded ×Jnanabharathi
campus in October 2012, appears to be lagging behind. While the
varsity, with over 600 affiliated institutions, had announced soon after
the incident that CCTV cameras would be installed on campus, this is yet to see the light of day.
BU Vice-Chancellor B. Thimme Gowda told
The Hindu
that the delay in installation of CCTVs was due to the delay in laying
of optical fibre cables for the control room. “This will cost nearly Rs.
2 crore. We are calling for tenders,” he said.
Among the only concrete steps that the varsity has taken to ensure safety of its students is the ‘Sensitisation, Prevention and ×Redressal
of Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination (SPARSH and GD) policy’,
which promises action within 30 days from the day of the complaint
against the guilty. The policy specifies that the committee to which
complaints will be addressed will consist of at least 50 per cent women,
and prescribes formation of complaint committees at three levels —
affiliated colleges (College Complaints Committee), university
(University Units Complaints Committee) and Apex Complaints Committee.
While
Prof. Gowda said the UGC report was yet to reach him, the task force’s
major recommendations include institutionalising counselling services
(the report says regular faculty doubling up as counsellors and
part-time arrangements should be replaced with well-trained, full-time
counsellors).
Infrastructure-wise, the report says,
“According to feedback received, many higher education institutions
(HEIs), including large campuses, have a deficit in lighting and are
experienced as unsafe by students. Students should be encouraged to
undertake a mapping of the spaces in and around their campuses in terms
of lighting.”
Another important aspect is of
security, which the task force report says should not lead to a
‘securitisation approach to combating sexual harassment.’ “A common
complaint from students has to do with security. Adequate and
well-trained security including a good balance of women security staff
is necessary. Security must receive gender sensitisation training apart
from other conditions of service,” the report says.
In
a blow to BU, which has announced the withdrawal of its transport for
the coming academic year, the report also says, “Many HEIs suffer from
lack of reliable public transport. This includes lack of transport
within large campuses between different sections of the university,
especially hostels,
libraries, laboratories and main buildings, and secondly, colleges that
do not have good access for day scholars. Lack of safety as well as
harassment is exacerbated when students cannot depend on safe public
transport. Shuttle buses must be provided to enable students to work
late in libraries and laboratories and to attend programmes in the
evenings.”
Discriminatory rules
Apart from inadequate toilets
for women, insufficient accommodation and crowding are also dealt with.
Another major problem tackled in the report is the ‘differential
timings and codes of behaviour for women hostellers’. “It has come to
the notice of the task force that after the December 2012 rape incident,
many HEIs responded by making their timings and rules for women
stricter and more
discriminatory than before. It must be reiterated that discriminatory
timings and other forms of constraining women are not valid or
acceptable ways of keeping women safe. Concern for the safety of women
should not lead to stricter discriminatory rules in the hostels.”
It may be recalled that there was furore in the ×National Law School of India University when the varsity barred students from going into or out of the campus after 9 p.m. and before 6 a.m.
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