Self-defence training for girl students gets the cold shoulder from varsities, colleges

The Centre's push for self-defence training for girl students and digital classrooms has got the cold shoulder from higher education institutions.

Out of nearly 800 universities and 40,000 colleges, just 130 institutions have introduced self-defence training for girl students over the last four years, while a mere 184 have digital classrooms.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had asked heads of all universities and colleges in 2014 to introduce self-defence training programme for girl students.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry directed higher education institutions to upgrade their classrooms to digital format with the help of ICT (Information Communication Technology) tools last year.

The institutions' disinterest came to light after the UGC recently called for a status report from all universities and colleges on introduction of self-defence training for girl students and digital classrooms.

"The UGC has informed that, as on February 26, 2018, 130 higher education institutions are running self-defence programmes for women and 184 have e-enabled classrooms," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Task Force report

The higher education regulator had asked the universities and colleges to introduce self-defence training for girls on the recommendation of a task force.

The committee was constituted to suggest measures to ensure safety and security of students of higher education, particularly girl students, on and outside their campus. The panel submitted its report, titled 'Saksham,' to the Commission in October 2013.

"The UGC has been requested to universalise the adoption of the measures recommended in the Saksham report," Javadekar told the lower House of Parliament.