Don't wear party wear to college, says Minister Girija Vyas

Girls should not wear party dresses while going to colleges if they want to avoid becoming victim of sexual harassment, suggested senior Congress leader and Union Minister Girija Vyas here on Wednesday in a remark that way raise a many eyebrows.

“Many people suggest that women should be dressed decently while going out. I do not agree with such suggestions completely. But, at the same time, I am not completely in agreement with that girls should wear night party dresses while going to colleges,” the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister said.

She was speaking at the unveiling of a report of a task force on the safety of women in higher educational institution here.

Vyas, however, also stressed on the need for a “change of mindset” in society, saying women can not be considered as “commodities”.

“We reject such mindset,” she added, emphasising that curbing crime against women required better implementation of law and launching of intense awareness drives to make people more gender sensitive.

The Union minister’s remark comes at a time when only few days back a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra State Women's Commission member Asha Mirje kicked up a controversy by suggesting that Nirbhaya, a gang-rape victim in Delhi who died of her injuries in December 2012, could have avoided being attacked by not going out at night. She, however, apologised for her remarks.

The 10-member Task Force, set up by the University Grants Commission last year in wake of Delhi gang-grape case in 2012, submitted its report to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry here.

The penal was headed by commission’s member and principal of Delhi-based Lady Sri Ram College for Women, Meenakshi Gopinath.

The penal suggested setting up of a dedicated unit at the UGC for gender sensitisation, two course modules on the gender sensitisation for students, adequate infrastructure such as lights in and around campuses, “reliable” public transport   among many other measures to ensure safety of women, both students and staff, at higher educational insituions.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) must have an “essential” gender audit component as part of its evaluation process and promotion of faculty and staff should be contingent upon their participation in gender sensitization programmes, it also recommended.

“We must talk about the need for gender sensitisation and issues of safety of women in all the seminars and programmes. We should also talk about the observations and recommendation of this report. This will help build up the gender sensitivity,” HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju told UGC chairman Ved Prakash, after unveiling the report.

Members of the panel urged the minister to ensure implementation of the recommendations made in their report. Vyas suggested that policemen should be deployed outside the college and varsity campuses for safety of women students and staff as is done in many countries like the US.