Guidelines framed for safety of girl students

With the gang-rape of a medical student from Manipal University bringing to fore the safety of girl students in the State, the Home department has prepared fresh guidelines to be followed by universities for ensuring safety of their students.

After a series of meetings on Monday, the department said the new guidelines would specifically focus on the feasible measures for ensuring security and safety of students of the state-run and private universities. The guidelines focus on adequate manpower to provide security, installation of closed circuit televisions (CCTVs) and adequate lighting on the campuses.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) V Umesh said the guidelines would come into effect after being approved by the government. The government will direct varsities to ensure that there is sufficient private security personnel on the campuses.

“Security personnel should be present mainly in and around women’s hostels on university campuses,” said Umesh. Universities should have adequate lighting and CCTVs on their campuses. If universities cannot afford adequate CCTVs, they have to step up night patrol, he said.

For students residing off-campus, the Home department has stated, that varsities would have to arrange separate transport facility. “In case students have their own mode of transport, colleges and universities should give an advisory on which roads to avoid and which to use,” he said.

The prime reason cited for  these safety guidelines is due to the location of varsities in the State. For instance, Manipal University, NLSIU and Bangalore University are situated in remote areas.

The enforcement of these guidelines will be taken up by the jurisdictional police and the superintendent of police of the district. The Higher Education department will be calling a meeting of all the VCs soon to collect details on their security requirements and provide a feasible response, said Rajane- esh Goel, principal secretary, Higher Education department.