JNU notifies new sexual harassment policy

Jawaharlal Nehru University, which received maximum number of sexual harassment complaints by any educational institution in Delhi in the past two years, has notified a revamped sexual harassment policy that includes penalty provisions for false complaints.

According to a Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) report, 101 cases of sexual harassment were reported from various universities in Delhi, barring the Delhi University, since 2013. Of these, about 50% were reported in JNU. The DU had not submitted the list of such cases.

JNU has Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), a central body which deals with complaints of this nature from across the university departments.

The panel had submitted a draft of the revised rules and procedures in accordance with the 2013 guidelines of the Supreme Court to Vice Chancellor SK Sopory in September this year which has been approved by the varsity’s Executive Council (EC).

One of the major amendments in the policy is introduction of a provision for protection from victimisation of the complainant as well as witnesses besides a penalty provision for false complaints.

The revamped policy also has different clauses for “Sexual Harassment at workplace” and “Sexual harassment in Academic Spheres” and for re-appealing if the complainant is dissatisfied with GSCASH’s decision.

According to the notified policy, “If the committee finds that a complaint registered by a person is false, he or she will be served a show-cause notice to detail the reasons behind doing so.”

“In the event of no, insufficient, or unconvincing explanation, GSCASH shall forward its findings to the appropriate university authority for further action which

might include a restraint order, change in hostel or a disciplinary action,” it says.

The university will also ensure that the defendant does not evaluate the examination or supervise the research of the complainant and vice versa to ensure there is no victimisation.

GSCASH was instituted by the university in 1999 under the Vishaka guidelines of the Supreme Court.

The panel has representatives from JNU Students Union (JNUSU), JNU Officers’ Association (JNUOA), hostel wardens, faculty and administrative staff.

The body has three major functions: gender sensitisation and orientation, crisis management and mediation, and formal enquiry and redressal.

Installation of sanitary pad dispensers, identification of third gender in the university admission forms are among the many key changes brought in recent years by the GSCASH.

However, a group of JNU teachers had last month questioned the working of GSCASH, alleging that its “processes are perverted”.

Demanding that JNU be a “gender-sensitive and gender-just” campus, a group of teachers has written an open letter to the varsity administration seeking its intervention to improve the functioning of GSCASH.

The teachers had also alleged that the confidentiality with regard to complaints was being “blatantly violated”, leading to defaming the complainants and the putting their integrity on “public trial”.

The committee had come out with a clarification saying that “it engages and encourages the community to file such cases in a confidential manner, without engaging unwanted attention and speculation at the same time”.

Source: Hindustan Times, 7-12-2015

JNU proposes short-term courses on Yoga, Indian culture

Against the backdrop of a raging controversy over saffronisation of education, JNU has proposed to introduce short-term courses on “Indian Culture” and “Yoga” to propagate the spiritual and mythological aspects of the country and establish Indian values in the world.

The varsity has a proposal ready in this regard and a draft of three such courses has been circulated among various schools and departments of JNU for their feedback. The matter will be placed before the JNU academic council (AC) on October 30.

The HRD ministry officials, however, feigned ignorance over such development. According to the draft, the course on Indian culture aims to expound the importance of the country’s culture as well as explore the etymological, social, spiritual, cultural and mythological aspects.

The course will contain the texts, thoughts and traditions of different cultures and include things like religious systems in Indian culture among others. Besides, it will have portions from Vedas and selections from “epics and Jatakas” and suggestions on readings of Hindu epics like the Ramayana. “Indian values play a huge role in promoting peace and brotherhood.

The course will include a basic study of Indian culture to establish Indian rituals and values in the world and derive ways from these sources to make human life better,” a senior varsity official said on the condition of anonymity.

Similarly, a course in Yoga will also be offered with its focus not only on meditation and spirituality but also for good health. “These courses will be offered part-time and whether or not they will be credit courses is yet to be decided. Details about the school offering them and the duration will also be worked out post the AC approval,” the official said.

Source: Hindustan Times, 8-10-2015

Subramanian Swamy could be next JNU VC

Sobhana K Nair in New Delhi mirrorfeedback TWEETS @sobhananair





BJP leader Subramanian Swamy (pictured) could be the next JNU vice chancellor, according to a local daily. The Human Resources Ministry neither confirmed nor denied the report. The term of current VC, Prof S K Sopory, ends December.Swamy refused to confirm whether the minister, Smriti Irani, offered him the job. “Why should I confirm or deny news printed anywhere?
This isn't the first time I've been offered a job. I was offered post of chairman Brics Bank in China, then Maharashtra governor. I turned them down. I'm a five-time MP and twice minister, the post has to be of my status,“ he told Mirror. If Swamy is to be appointed as VC, few rules will have to be twisted.For one, their advertisement said the applicant should not exceed 65 years. Swamy, born in 1939, is 75.
Swamy taught economics at IIT Delhi in 1969-72. He was sacked by the Indira Gandhi government, challenged the decision in court, and was reinstated in 1991. He filed a suit seeking recovery of salary and demanded Rs 70 lakh. The matter remains undecided despite nudges from HRD ministry to IIT to settle it in Swamy's favour.
Source: Mumbai Mirror, 24-09-2015

Jun 26 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

JNU's iconic eatery also a cultural institution

Avijit Ghosh

New Delhi TNN





Shutting Down Ganga Dhaba Akin To Killing Part Of JNU's Glorious Heritage Ganga dhaba was synonymous with JNU's nightlife, its cultural ecology. It was a place where the political types decided on the text and tenor of the next pamphlet. Ask anyone to name one place in JNU; a majority would say Ganga dhaba. Why kill your best-known imprint?

In the life of any institution, some places become cultural markers. In collective memory and popular perception, they gradually attain the sanctity of a heritage site. For JNU, that's what Ganga dhaba perhaps is.To equate it with any other eatery in the campus and initiate moves to shut it down not only means the university's lack of appreciation of its own tradition but also an inability to see the importance and strength of its own most instantly-recognizable brand.
Ask anyone to name one place in JNU; a majority would say Ganga dhaba. Why kill your best-known imprint?
Till the mid-1980s, the Nilgiri dhaba, poised between Periyar and Godavari hostels, was a hotter nightspot than Ganga. But within a few years, the latter overshadowed the former by a mile. Even a suicide committed by one of the dhaba owners did nothing to dimin ish its popularity .
Those days when most eateries--and there were hardly any in the campus--shut down early , Ganga dhaba's nimboo-paani and bunomlettes served as late as 1.30pm were lifesavers for hundreds who had missed their dinner for one reason or the other.
But more importantly, Ganga dhaba was synonymous with JNU's nightlife, its cultural ecology . It was a place where the political types--and there were so many--decided on the text and tenor of the next pamphlet and mapped the strategies of the forthcoming campus agitation. Late night, the civil services types would also emerge from their rooms and fill in their thermos flask with over-sweetened tea which helped them get through the night.
At the dhaba, only a handful indulged in deep and mea ningful conversation on Marxism. This is one of the most enduring mythologies of JNU which many of us are guilty of having perpetuated.
Most boys and girls chatted deep into the night over anything and everything under the stars because it just felt so good to do so. The place was a comfort pillow. It was also an addiction.
And yet depending on the quality of the students involved, there was often something meaningful in those avante-garde conversations. One never realized it back then but those were takeaways that enabled you to negotiate life.
To be fair, the importance of Ganga dhaba is certainly not the same today as it was back in the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, eateries abound in the campus and home delivery of dinner to hostels is common.
But to look at Ganga dhaba as just another cheap open-air eatery would be erroneous. It gives the university a sense of history and adds to its character. It is a signpost of what the institution once was. If there are issues related to hygiene or anything else with regard to its running, they need to be sorted out rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Any campus is always a work in progress. The university authority is entitled to ring in positive changes. But the intelligent changemaker always preserves the best of the past. Ganga dhaba links JNU's past to its present. To shut it down would mean the end of JNU as we prefer to remember it. It would be both a mistake and a tragedy .