Adopt UGC norms to prevent sexual harassment on campuses: Tamil Nadu universities

Chennai: In the wake of Nirmala Devi's case, the Tamil Nadu government has asked the state universities and colleges to adopt University Grants Commission's regulations 2015 to prevent sexual harassment of women staff and students in higher educational institutions. The bi-monthly meeting of state university vice-chancellors and registrars was held at Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE) in Chennai on Friday.

In the meeting, the vice-chancellors were asked to take steps all kinds of harassment of women staff and girl students at the higher educational institutions, sources said.

The UGC (Prevention, prohibition and redressal of sexual harassment of women employees and students in higher educational institutions) regulations, 2015 is comprehensive deals with the steps that are needed to be taken to stop harassment at the educational institutions and it also clearly defines the punishments for such harassments.

"The issue of adopting the guidelines was discussed in the meeting. Some of the universities have already adopted the UGC regulations. We have instructed them to activate the guidelines fully and make sure all the affiliated institutions are also adopting it," sources said.

Following the Nirmala Devi's case in which she lured four girl students to do sexual favours in return for money and academic progression, the state government has set up a panel of two vice-chancellors - Madras University vice-chancellor P.Duraisamy and Tamil Nadu Open University vice-chancellor M.Bhaskaran to suggest the draft guidelines for preventing sexual harassment in the colleges and universities.