One in every four women studying at the Delhi University (DU) and its affiliated colleges has been a victim of sexual harassment, a safety audit has revealed. The audit was conducted by the student wing of the Congress - National Students' Union of India (NSUI) - covering 50 departments and colleges across the varsity.
According to the survey, conducted on a total of 810 students, of whom around 90 per cent were women and 10 per cent were men, of the 188 cases of harassment faced by the respondents, there were as many as 40 cases of physical harassment. “One in five cases of harassment was of touching or groping. Lewd gestures, staring, vulgar comments make up for the most rampant kind of harassment. Also, one in five cases of harassment concerned trolling on social media or harassment through calls or text/WhatsApp messages," the report said.
The survey revealed that not even half of the students were aware of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) -- a mandatory body to handle cases of sexual harassment -- in their colleges and 70 per cent of the respondents stated that the names and contact details of the ICC members are not prominently displayed in their colleges, it said.
“Such audits will be conducted in other prominent universities across the country in the coming days. On May 1, there will be a march in Delhi University North Campus demanding steps for the safety of women on the campus,” NSUI national in-charge, Ruchi Gupta said.
The NSUI recommendations suggested by the report, include the scrapping of the ICC if found constituted without a democratic election, awareness programmes regarding the committee, an immediate crackdown on public drinking, installation of CCTV cameras and appointment of guards in all the public buses.
