The Kerala Women’s Commission has recommended that the General Education department ensure that internal committees to prevent sexual violence against women be formed in all schools at the beginning of the academic year.
Commission chairperson P. Satheedevi and member Indira Raveendran handed over the recommendation to Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty at his office on Friday.
The commission also recommended that the department direct all schools to ensure formation of parent-teacher association (PTA) and functioning of PTA executive committee as per government guidelines.
It also recommended that a district-level official of the department be tasked with monitoring if internal committees were meeting regularly.
The commission said that complaints from teachers in various parts of the State showed that in many schools, internal committees as per Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013, or POSH Act, to receive and redress complaints on sexual harassment had not been formed.
In schools where the committees did exist, they did not meet regularly or have a mechanism for complaint redressal. Against such a backdrop, action should be taken against all schools that do not form internal committees, the commission mooted.
It said the State government had issued a circular on formation of school PTA executive committee. However, the commission had learnt that the formation of PTA committees and their functioning in many schools were not as per the guidelines in the circular.
