The February 9 event, which led to a sedition case against some students, not only affected the academic functioning of the varsity, but also delayed the gender panel election process in the political
The February 9 event, which led to a sedition case against some students, not only affected the academic functioning of the varsity, but also delayed the gender panel election process in the politically active institution.
JNU constitutes Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), a body that deals with complaints of sexual persecution. It consists of two student-elected representatives, faculty members, office staff and representatives from the JNU Students’ Union, JNU Officers’ Association and JNU Staff Association.
However, the election of the students’ representatives which is conducted in April every year would now get delayed by over five months in the wake of the recent turbulence on the campus.
JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora said, “The GSCASH elections are held in April every year and the process begins by February end. However, this time, due to the arrest of three students in a sedition case and the controversies that followed after that, the polls could not be held.”
“The exams are beginning next week which will be followed by the summer break on campus so the GSCASH elections will have to be clubbed with the student union polls, slated to be held in September,” she added.
The GSCASH and JNUSU polls used to coincide earlier, but it was decided three years ago to have both the polls separately in order to main sanctity of the gender panel as a non-political body.
Unlike the JNU Studen-ts’ Union elections where most of the candidates are supported by organisations within the campus, the GSCASH election is not contested on the basis of organisations or a candidate’s political ideology.
GSCASH, which works as an autonomous body, was constituted in 1999. It has three major functions — gender sensitisation and orientation, crisis management and mediation, and formal enquiry and redressal.
