Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 31: Deeply concerned over the alleged incident of sexual harassment of a girl student by her teacher in Jammu University, agitating students today called on the Vice-Chancellor Prof R D Sharma and demanded stern action against the accused Assistant Professor.
The students raised the issue of alleged delay in proceedings of the enquiry against accused Asst Professor following which the Vice-Chancellor claimed that the Committee Against Sexual Harassment (CASH) was working expeditiously since the day complaint was registered and necessary preventive action has also been taken to provide the safe environment to the complainant well within the guidelines of CASH.
Pertinent to mention that taking cognizance of a girl student’s complaint of sexual harassment by Assistant Professor Shubhnandan Jamwal of JU, the CASH has recommended enquiry into the matter and also debarring the accused from all assignments related to Semester IV exams of the MCA Department.
Meanwhile, activists of YUVA (Youth and Vivekananda), a group of research scholars and students of Jammu University, have demanded strict action against professor for sexual harassment of student and replace existing JU CASH with ICC as per UGC regulation 2015.
Taking strong note of the incident of sexual harassment YUVA members held a meeting in which they alleged that the incidents of sexual harassment of students in the campuses were increasing day by day and become a menace especially for the female research scholars and students who are more vulnerable to such incidents. “In most of the cases owing to the fear of repercussions from the offender and poor mechanism of complaint handling in the campuses, the female students do not report such incident of sexual harassment to the authorities .But when any victim muster courage to report such incident of sexual harassment then a strict action should be taken against the offender and the complaint should be disposed off in the least possible time to provide justice to the victim, they added.
The members also appealed the JU authorities to expeditiously conduct the enquiry and suspend or debar the accused professor from entering the campus pending enquiry, so that he could not threaten the victim or influence the working of the committee. They also demanded that there should be maximum dissemination of information among students about complaint mechanism against sexual harassment adopted in Jammu University.
Activists of National Conference Students Union also took out a protest against the shameful incident of sexual harassment and demanded stern action against the accused.
Addressing the gathering, NCSU provincial senior vice president Sahil Singh Jamwal, said that such incidents put a black spot on the name of institution and teaching fraternity. He warned that the students would be forced to take to streets if no stringent action is taken against the accused.
Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad has also demanded exemplary punishment to the accused Assistant Professor so that no teacher could dare to resort to such practices in near future.
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