GSCASH was working fine: former JNU V-C

He played key role in gender panel

NEW DELHI, 11/12/2015: Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe being conferred an honorary doctorate of Jawaharlal Nehru University by Vice-Chancellor S.K. Sopory in New Delhi on December 11, 2015. Photo: R.V. Moorthy

Former JNU Vice-Chancellor S.K. Sopory has said that the varsity’s scrapped sexual harassment watchdog was working well and people had full faith in it, a view also expressed by a large section of students and teachers who have deplored the administration’s move.

Heading the Central university between 2011-16, Mr. Sopory was instrumental in strengthening the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) by making it compliant with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013. In September, JNU administration replaced the GSCASH with the Internal Complaints Committee, a body which has members predominantly nominated by the administration, attracting criticisms.

Asked about the turbulent student agitations in the prestigious university and the challenges during his tenure, Mr. Sopory said, students listened to reasoning, so did all others.

“Despite agitations against me, I used to listen to their issues and attempted to resolve them,” he said.