JNU to elect student members of gender panel tomorrow

The Jawaharlal Nehru University will tomorrow elect students representatives to the varsity's 15-member gender panel set up to deal with complaints of sexual harassment within its precinct.
"Polling for electing two student members to Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) will begin at 10 AM tomorrow and counting of votes will be done in evening. However, we will make the results public on Saturday," said Dileep, a varsity student and the election commissioner for the polls.
"There are seven candidates in fray including one male student," Dileep said.
While BJP's youth wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has nominated Vasundhari Bharti and Sourabh Kumar, All India Students Association (AISA)'s candidate is Geeta Kumari.

Other nominees include Students Federation of India (SFI)'s Salini LR, Aishwarya Adhikari from Democratic Students Federation (DSF), Rahila Perween from All India Students Federation (AISF) and Heena Goswami from Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI).
GSCASH was instituted by the university in 1999 under the Vishaka guidelines of the Supreme Court.

The panel, headed by a Chairperson, 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 few among the many landmark changes brought in recent years by the GSCASH.