Notifying India’s first Gender Neutral Regulations on Sexual Harassment: UGC

University Grants Commission (UGC) notified Gender Neutral Regulations on Sexual Harassment. Now the male students and also the students of other genders in universities can also file complaints against sexual harassments faced by them. By these regulations UGC made sexual harassment a gender neutral affair which is faced by either male or female or any other gender, the person can complaint against it.

The UGC recently notifies that for the prohibition and prevention of sexual harassment by any female or male in educational institutions it is the responsibility of the Higher Educational Institutions to “act decisively against all gender based violence perpetrated against employees and students of all sexes recognising that primarily women employees and students and some male students and students of third gender are vulnerable to many forms of sexual harassment and humiliation and exploitation”.

These regulations released by UGC also state the specific procedure for filing the complaints. The victim has to file the complaint in a written form to the Internal Complaints Committee within 3 months from the date of the incident and in case of continuous incidents the victim have to file the complaint within 3 months after the last incident. Any person related to the victim that is either friend, parents, relatives, psychologist or any other associate member can file the complaint of sexual harassment against the victim when he/she is not in a mental stability or condition to file the complaint.

By- Simran Arora