Compared to 2017 figures, the number of sexual harassment cases across educational institutions in India went up by 40.
In the year 2016-17, 149 cases of harassment were reported from various universities across India, up from 94 cases in the year 2015-16, Ministry of Human Resource Development told Parliament on Monday.
The issue of sexual harassment in colleges was has been in discussion of late, when a student of a Delhi University college in west Delhi filed a complaint with Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi alleging sexual harassment by a teacher. The woman said she was traumatised because of the harassment she was going through.
Student organisations carried out a number of protests after the incident to bring the matter to light. It was during this case only, that the sorry state of dealing with sexual harassment complaints came to the fore. It was found that 70 per cent Delhi University (DU) colleges have Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs) to deal with sexual harassment cases, but they are mostly on paper and students even in those institutions do not have any clue about the mandatory autonomous bodies.
"To obtain the policy of zero tolerance, UGC has taken various measures to ensure the safety of women on campus and programmes for gender sensitisation. The commission had asked all Vice Chancellors/Directors of all institutions of higher learning in the country to review the security arrangements for girls and women in university/college campuses and in girls' hostels," Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh said in the written reply in Parliament.