Delhi tops in sexual harassment cases in colleges

Delhi has the maximum number of complaints of sexual harassment in educational institutions, the government said on Wednesday.

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani informed the Lok Sabha that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had requested all the higher educational institutions to submit the annual return on cases of sexual harassment for the period April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015.

She said that based on the responses of 84 universities, 75 cases of sexual harassment of women lecturers, professors and research scholars by academic heads were reported.

Delhi topped the list with 27 cases, Uttar Pradesh had 23 cases and one each were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Karnataka and Assam.

Haryana had seven cases, Odisha had six and two each were reported from Maharashtra, Tripura and Chhattisgarh.

"UGC has reported that complaints have been received against the head of faculties of Punjab University, Jadavpur University, The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and St. Stephen's College, Delhi," she said.

Complaints were also reported from the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NEUPA), the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), and two National Institutes of Technology (NITs).