According to a public notice released by the UGC, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has drafted guidelines for a safe and secure environment for women in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in light of what is occurring with regard to the safety of female students in a number of universities and colleges across the country.
By November 14, 2022, the Commission is also accepting comments and ideas at ssiwach.ugc@nic.in. The UGC is committed to creating a safe, secure, and violence-free environment in every educational institution across the nation, according to the Public Notice. It has periodically reviewed and issued rules for the safety of college populations, particularly women.
In order to address this, the UGC once more established a committee in 2022 and charged it with examining and modernising the safety regulations for application.
The standards are essentially categorised into two interconnected domains: women cells for sensitization, policy implementation, monitoring, and grievance redressal; infrastructure facilities and amenities for a safe and secure environment.
The following is a list of some of the recommendations made by the UGC for female students and covered within the NEP (National Education Policy 2020):
1. When students are admitted, they should be given a handbook outlining the norms and guidelines for appropriate conduct and behaviour that are expected of them.
2. To address the students' psychological and emotional issues, there ought to be professional counselling services on campus.
3. The safety of women is everyone's top priority. The idea of risk associated with pursuing higher education "outside" of one's home limits one's options rather frequently.
4. The HEIs shall make sure that women have simple access to facilities for basic sanitation and hygiene, including clean, well-maintained separate restrooms with 24-hour tap water supply, soap, covered trash bins, and sanitary pad disposal bins in all of its buildings.
5. The surrounding neighbourhoods and the university should be well-lit. Floodlights ought to be installed in public parks, playgrounds, and sporting areas.
6. The HEIs should offer dependable and consistent transportation options, including feeder buses, for all students, particularly female students and employees, to ensure their safety while navigating the campus.
Recent concerns about women's safety in HEIs
Recently, NIT Trichy students protested because only female students were subject to curfews, preventing them from using nighttime campus amenities like labs and libraries.
A canteen employee from IIT Bombay once scaled the wall leading to the girls' dormitory and peered inside the hostel restroom.
In a different incident, demonstrations broke out at Chandigarh University after a girl from the hostel allegedly leaked videos of other students in the hostel restroom.
