Gujarat National Law University
Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
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The “Gensen” Committee: What it is all about? An Original GNLU Initiative

“Sex” is a much bandied about term about the physical differences between womenfolk and men folk. It is commonly perceived to be Universal in nature. The term “Gender” points to the socially engineered responsibilities of women and men, in a given cultural location and station. These preferences are structured by viewpoints and expectations emanating from socio-cultural, political, environmental, economic, and faith based factors. Custom, law, class, ethnicity, and individual or institutional biases too play a moulding role. Gender definitions are learned and can be metamorphosed. India in particular has had a checkered record as far as the metamorphosing roles of Gender and women role playing are concerned. Women may seem to have advanced beyond their Patriarchal chains but the societal net still looms large over the dames of the day. Women need to pull their act together and assert themselves in a clarion call of the “Benign Sisterhood”, which undertakes tasks for the upliftment of the common weal. (Veil!)

Women today are independent and financially self sufficient in many walks of life. Our Educational Institutions are a sacred place, which needs to be spruced up for ensuring Gender Justice and egalitarian treatment in an open and transparent environment. GNLU Denizens, both male and female students, need to be made aware of the reason for Gender sensitization mechanisms to exist in their sphere of legal Education. Being the legal eagles that they are, they need to ascertain themselves a modicum of strain free and healthy environment where academic exchanges take place with fluidity and the academics of the Law School goes on unhindered upstream. There are certain “stereotypes” which need to be broken:

Women V/S Men

Poor - Rich

Weak - Powerful

Bonded - Free

Housekeepers - Breadwinners

Weakneed - Braveheart

Liberals-Realists

Gender inequality is still very evident in this respect, as indicated by the following United Nations Statistics

Women tend to perform 2/3 of the world’s work
Women tend to earn 1/10 of the world’s income
Of the world’s illiterates, Women account for two thirds of the segment.
Women own less than One-Hundreth of the World’s Assests


Women Students in GNLU need to take into account the sea of adjectives and statistics here and interweave them in a stellar effort to increase awareness about women issues like harassment in Educational Institutions, work place and other public places like transport systems in cosmopolitan cities and the glass ceiling faced by women employees in various private and public sectors. Women students need to take their male friends into confidence and dispel the fears and misconceptions which the student community has about an institution as hallowed and public serving as our very own “GenSen”. With everybody’s confidence we have evolved a redressal mechanism which is very well oiled and efficient and has risen on occasions of distress to women in our highly esteemed National Law School. The prevention and deterrence of sexual harassment in the workplace laid down by the Supreme Court of India in its 13th August 1997 judgment, on the Writ Petition (Criminal) Vishaka vs. State of Rajasthan, is the beacon light for our GNLU’s “GenSen”. The National Human Rights Commission also in a momentous move directed the University Grants Commission to procure the directives concerning sexual harassment to be circulated among other Universities. The best way to combat the prowlers is speak up against them collectively and if that is not possible due to societal pressures then a higher up authority can be intimated and action initiated against the erring person. The key to the process is that no delay should occur in the reporting of the untoward incident, as it may only further instigate the offender. The harassment in public places needs to be curtailed and it is highly essential that the future arbitrators in GNLU, honestly imbibe the concerns of gender issues. Harassment need not be delimited to the concrete and the tangible, as mental torture and psychological harassment in Educational institutions at all keels in the Ivy League centers of learning, too need to be bracketed as crime and atonement being done for it. This is the call of the hour and the sentiment of the day.

So, here we are with our initiative in GNLU and its friendly neighbourhood to let hell break loose against all arch vices of vile beings. Let us all be Charlie’s Angels and be a member of the team in order to clobber the transgressors of virtue. These are our Faculty Coordinators for the “GenSen”:

Dr. Mamata Biswal, Gnlu Faculty, Convener (GenSen)
Ms. Richa Mulchandani, Gnlu Faculty
Mr. Thomas Mathew,Gnlu Faculty
Mr. Manan Dwivedi, Gnlu Faculty
Ms. Ashmi Dave, Asst. Administrative Officer
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LSC: The Legal Services Committee in GNLU is Here To stay………….

Legal Services or the Legal Aid Clinic is an important facet of any esteemed center of Legal education in the country. The Legal Services Committee or the “LSC” as it is stylishly called by our GNLU denizens has offered to spread legal education all around the region about themes of Justice and amelioration of excesses meted out to people in general. Legal Services aims to spawn awareness among the GNLU denizens about their larger than life public welfare objective of doing away with the cobwebs which shroud the people’s understanding about our arcane and stolid judicial system. The Gnlu Denizens need to be made aware of the significant part they can play in eradicating the ills haranguing the Indian people, specially the ones who cannot finance their legal cases and cannot afford to make the offender pay retribution for his or her ill deeds.


Our “LSC” is based upon the premise of “Volunteership” which refers to the individual and singular initiatives of the students in the capacity of unlicensed advisors par excellence in order to make life easier for the subalterns and the rurals of the region. The “LSE”, as we have christened it, has a novel objective, as it espouses the objective of the “Salvation Army” with the “Benefactor” being the better accoutered lot of students who extend out a hand of sane advise, hope, and legal expertise through the modicum of Drama performances, and Community service programmes. Our outfit often visits nearby villages and sensitizes the commoners about themes like Police Atrocities, Dowry Deaths, Sexual Harassment and the likes which have a profound impact upon the largesse of social and economic Justice in India. We open our Emergency tool kits of Legal babble with our half donned robes in order to let the stream of social egalitarianism and equity flow in our proud nation state. That is what our “LSC” is all about, till now and we hope to persist with our strivings in the near future with an incentive for us- It makes us better Practioners in a Future setting for our parishioners.

The Gnlu Legal Services Committee is being manned by the following Enterprising Faculty

Mr. Molia Tarkesh J., Assistant Professor of Law ,Convener
Mr. Rhishikesh Dave, Assistant Professor of Law
Mr. Niranjan Bhatt, Advisor.
Mr. Saurabh Anand, Assistant Professor of Sociology.
Mr. Devang Chhtrapati, Assistant Professor of Law . All of them are Gnlu Faculty Denizens.

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