UGC to varsities: Create web page for complaints of SC/ST students
NEW DELHI: Universities and colleges across India will have a special page on their websites in which students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes can register complaints of caste discrimination.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has written to all universities asking them to place a complaint register in the institutes for filing complaints as well.
Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, a PhD student of Hyderabad University, had committed suicide in January that sparked off protests across the country. This led to the human resources development (HRD) ministry and the UGC deciding on holding sensitisation programmes for academic administrators.
“If any such incident comes to the notice of the authorities, action should be taken against the erring official/faculty members promptly. The university and colleges should ensure that no official/faculty indulge in any kind of discrimi- nation against any community or category of students,” states the UGC letter.
The commission has also asked all the universities to be sensitive in dealing with incidents of caste discrimination. It has asked them to submit an action-taken report detailing issues such as whether any suicides were reported in complaints received by the university, if the university has a functional cell to look into complaints by SC/ST students, and whether it is maintaining a record of complaints received so far.
In January, the UGC had asked vice-chancellors of central universities to make functional their Equal Opportunity Centre (EOC), which is aimed at sensitising universities/colleges about the problems of the marginalised/disadvantaged sections of the society.