Amid criticism, JNU changes circular on sexual harassment

NCW chief had also sought withdrawal of ‘misogynist’ notice

After a section of students and teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) protested against the wording of an invite sent by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) for a monthly counselling session on sexual harassment, the university uploaded a different version of the invite on its website.

Lines replaced

The new invite removed the line “girls are supposed to know how to draw a tangible line between them and their male friends to avoid such harassments” that had the JNU community fuming.

The subhead “why is this counselling session required” that had the above line has now been replaced with “boys will be counselled to clearly distinguish between friendship and behaviour that may be considered sexual harassment”.

‘Victim blaming’

The students of the university have been demanding the doing away of the ICC and bringing back the GSCASH that was a system the university had in place to deal with cases of sexual harassment on campus.

The students said that time and again, the ICC has resorted to victim blaming in its reports.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma had also sought withdrawal of the “misogynist” circular issued by the university.

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