Making Higher Education Institutions Gender-Sensitive

Abstract

The years 2012 and 2013 played decisive roles in drawing our attention to the issue of gender violence, especially for women, in the workplace, which also came to include higher education institutions (HEI). The Vishaka Guidelines (1997), Verma Committee Report (2013) and Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act (2013) drew our attention to the need for having specific laws, redressal mechanisms and gender-sensitization programmes in HEI and led to the UGC (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations (2015). Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and gender-sensitization programmes became mandatory in Indian HEIs. What remained unaddressed, though, were the questions of gender sensitization in HEIs in the form of everyday classroom practices, pedagogical questions, curriculum-making process and intersectional approaches towards students’ diverse experiences. This chapter intends to understand how gender sensitization works in HEIs, in the context of the above-mentioned concerns and if merely having ICCs are effective in addressing the same. The paper locates the foundational idea behind Indian education policies within the larger framework of a global approach to gender sensitization of education and takes into account the relevant reports and studies of HEIs in India within the context of gendering higher education. It links these observations with actual conversations that the author had with interviewees associated in some capacity with HEIs in Kolkata and surrounding areas, in trying to establish that a flawed educational philosophy will remain ill-equipped to address the realities of a very-gendered education system that India runs.