80% DU Students Find Colleges Hostile In Sex Abuse Cases: Study

The Delhi University Teachers Association recently spoke up against the rising sexual harassment cases in the university. Now, the National Student’s Union of India (NSUI) has conducted a study to ascertain women's safety in the univ. It conducted the research across 50 departments and colleges. According to the study, almost 80% of the student respondents attributed unresponsiveness of the university/college administration as a key reason for unsafe campuses.

The survey covered a total 810 students. Of these, around 90 per cent were women and 10 per cent men. And of the 188 cases, around 40 were of people who underwent physical harassment.

“We will conduct such audits in other prominent universities across the country in the coming days. On May 1, we will organize a march in Delhi University North Campus demanding steps for the safety of women on the campus,” said Ruchi Gupta, NSUI national in-charge

“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.

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It noted that less than half of the students were not aware of the Internal Complaints Committee in their colleges. And 22 colleges out of 50 colleges/departments surveyed flouted UGC guidelines to democratically elect student representatives to the ICC.

“We will conduct such audits in other prominent universities across the country in the coming days. On May 1, we will organize a march in DU North Campus demanding steps for women's safety on campus,” NSUI national in-charge, Ruchi Gupta said.

NSUI has suggested quashing of ICCs constituted without democratic elections. It also suggested mandatory democratic elections of three students (of which two should be female students) to the ICC. Universities should make quarterly reports on the functioning of the ICC publicly available, it said. Besides, there should be clean toilet facilities across all colleges, crackdown on public drinking and CCTV cameras and guards in all DTC/public buses.

Picture credit- Twitter

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