Women faculty to get their own loos

AGRA: A month after male faculty members of the Aligarh Muslim University ( AMU ) allegedly occupied toilets meant for its female staff, vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor has directed the departments of political science and social work to make alterations, such as removing urinals installed inside the loos , and hand them over to women faculty for use.

A letter, written by assistant finance officer Shakeel Ahmad, mentioned that the VC has directed chairpersons of both departments to hand over the toilets to women faculty as recommended by presiding officer of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). Women teachers had lodged a formal complaint with the committee against the ‘encroachment’.

TOI had earlier reported that male faculty members had ‘encroached’ upon two adjoining toilets meant for women staff. They had also installed urinals and hung a board on the door that read ‘Gents Toilet’. In its report, the presiding officer of ICC, Shaheena Tarannum, had stated that there were only 14 restrooms for women in the arts building which houses departments of philosophy, English, Hindi, history, psychology, social work, Persian, linguistics, political science and Sanskrit. In contrast, the numbers of toilets meant for male teachers were 37. Currently, there are 59 women members in the faculty of arts building against 116 male teachers.

The adjoining toilets that were encroached upon were constructed using special fund of Rs 25 lakh that was sanctioned by the University Grants Commission in 2011-12 under “basic facilities for women” category.

AMU’s spokesperson, Shafey Kidwai, said that the wall between the two toilets will now be broken to turn it into a single large toilet for women faculty.

The VC has also sanctioned Rs 3.13 lakh for construction of a women’s toilet at the linguistics department.

