The University Grants Commission (UGC) ON July 31, 2023, issued a Press release regarding the guidelines on basic facilities and amenities for a safe, secure environment for Women in HEIs
The following has been stated namely: -
• It states that the UGC has developed the "Guidelines on basic facilities and amenities for a safe, secure environment for Women and Women Cell (for sensitization, policy implementation, monitoring, and grievance redressal) in HEIs to provide a safe, secure and violence free environment to all the students, particularly the women students.
• The guidelines are available on the UGC website at www.ugc.gov.in.
• All HEIs have been mandated to have Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) under the provision of Section 4 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
• It states that In order to improve the safety of all women, including students and employees, and to provide a healthy and secure atmosphere for them on the campus in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), the following initiatives have been taken namely: -
(i) UGC has notified UGC (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015, which are statutory in nature, are binding on Universities and Colleges. This regulation is available on the UGC website i.e. www.ugc.gov.in.
(ii) UGC has set up Toll-free No. 1800-111-656 for the registration of grievances related to women and sexual harassment.
(iii) Seminars/awareness workshops etc. are conducted for Gender Sensitization in HEIs.
(iv)UGC has directed all Universities/Colleges to submit the data of annual returns on cases of sexual harassment and constitute an Internal Complaint Committee and fill out online compliance of Gender Audit at the SAKSHAM web portal.
[Press Release ID 1944288]
