New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru College (JNU) has recorded 151 sexual harassment complaints since 2017, the yr its Inner Complaints Committee (ICC) changed Gender Sensitisation Committee Towards Harassment (GSCASH), based on knowledge obtained by means of an RTI software.
The college claims to have resolved almost 98 per cent of those complaints, with solely three circumstances at present below investigation.
Nonetheless, when requested concerning the nature of the complaints and the motion taken towards the accused, JNU refused to offer data, citing confidentiality.
The choice to dismantle GSCASH in 2017 has been a contentious problem, with the JNU College students’ Union and Academics’ Affiliation persistently demanding its reinstatement.
The affiliation argue that the ICC lacks the transparency and autonomy that GSCASH supplied and operates below administrative affect, undermining belief in its processes.
The info exhibits that the best variety of circumstances in a single yr was reported in 2018-19, with 63 complaints. Earlier than the ICC’s formation, JNU had acquired 38 document circumstances in 2016.
The COVID-19 pandemic years noticed a major drop, with solely six complaints registered between 2019 and 2021, probably because of diminished campus exercise.
Nonetheless, the numbers surged lately, with 30 complaints every in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Seventeen circumstances had been registered in 2017-18, 63 in 2018-19, 5 in 2019-20, one in 2020-21 and 5 in 2021-22, the info confirmed.
In 2015, the Delhi Fee for Ladies (DCW) famous that JNU had the best variety of sexual harassment complaints among the many metropolis’s academic establishments with 51 circumstances reported in a span of three years between 2013 and 2015. It amounted to roughly 50 per cent of such complaints amongst Delhi’s academic establishments throughout that interval.
Lately, a number of circumstances have introduced JNU below intense scrutiny.
In April, a second yr feminine pupil staged an indefinite strike for 12 consecutive days on campus blocking the principle entrance level of the varsity after alleged ‘inaction’ over her ‘sexual harassment’ criticism to the college officers. The survivor and the supporters had been later penalised by the varsity for staging the protest.
In October, as many as 47 feminine college students filed a joint criticism with the ICC concerning alleged sexual harassment and violence that occurred throughout a freshers’ celebration on campus.
Equally, in April, JNUSU claimed a feminine pupil of Centre for Chinese language and South-East Asian Research on the varsity was sexually harassed by her professor and inaction by the varsity administration over her criticism compelled her to go away the campus.
The incidents have led to widespread protests and raised questions concerning the dealing with of complaints by the ICC.
