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SC to UGC connected caste discrimination: Consider stakeholder suggestions, notify rules successful 8 weeks
Nearly a decennary aft the decease of Rohith Vemula and 4 years aft the decease of Payal Tadvi, the Supreme Court has moved to embed their mothers’ voices successful the country’s regulatory model against field discrimination.On Monday, a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to incorporated suggestions submitted by Radhika Vemula (Rohit’s mother) and Abeda Salim Tadvi (Payal’s mother) portion finalising its draught regulations to curb caste-based harassment, ragging, intersexual abuse, and favoritism rooted successful gender, disability, oregon different identities.The 2 mothers had jointly filed a PIL successful 2019, seeking organization safeguards aft their children—Vemula, a Dalit PhD student astatine Hyderabad Central University, and Tadvi, an Adivasi aesculapian pupil successful Mumbai—died by termination allegedly pursuing caste humiliation.
In July 2023, the apex tribunal sought UGC’s response. By March 2024, the Centre informed the tribunal that the UGC had framed draught norms. In April, the tribunal permitted UGC to proceed with finalising the regulations portion allowing stakeholders, including the petitioners, to nonstop written suggestions. The tribunal connected Monday said these suggestions—centred connected accountability structures, confidential ailment cells, time-bound redressal, intelligence wellness support, and penalties for organization negligence—must beryllium “substantively considered” earlier the last rules are notified.
The UGC has been fixed 8 weeks to incorporated them.
Key suggestions for UGC to origin in
The petitioners privation the caller UGC rules to determination beyond platitudes and hard-wire accountability, dignity, and adjacent accidental into mundane field practice. Their submissions outline specific, enforceable safeguards spanning prevention, redress, transparency, and penalties.
- Blanket prohibition connected discriminatory practices: A wide prohibition of each known forms of discrimination, with defined disciplinary consequences for violators.
- Non-segregation successful academics and housing: No allocation of hostels, classrooms, applicable batches, oregon labs based connected caste, community, entranceway rank, oregon world show if it results successful segregation.
- Scholarship disbursal transparency: Digitise and way the full assistance pipeline; forestall institutions from harassing students implicit authorities delays and alteration ailment tracking.
- Grievance redressal with representation: Set up committees with astatine slightest 50% SC/ST/OBC members and a Chair from these communities; supply an entreaty way to the National Commissions for SCs/STs.
- Protection of complainants: Apply a witness-protection benignant model to barroom intimidation, humiliation, oregon retaliation; licence complainants to proceed studies without harassment.
- Personal liability for negligence: Fix idiosyncratic accountability connected staff, including organization heads, for nonaccomplishment to enactment connected favoritism oregon for enabling hostile environments.
- Targeted mental-health counselling: Mandate trained counsellors equipped to enactment students from marginalised communities and trauma-informed redress.
- Accreditation and societal audits: Require NAAC to see anti-discrimination compliance metrics; behaviour periodic societal audits and people anonymised information by sex and societal group.
- Penalties for non-compliance: Empower UGC to retreat grants, affiliations, and accreditations wherever institutions neglect to comply.
- Equitable learning support: Run span courses and sustained world enactment programmes for students from marginalised sections.
