IISR Lucknow asks women to leave office by 5.30 pm and not sit in any officer’s room

A circular has been issued by an institute under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research over safety of women personnel after an objectionable incident surfaced during a webinar at the institute.

According to information, the webinar was organised by the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), an institute of ICAR, in which agricultural scientists from various institutes participated. The objectionable incident occurred during a break in the middle of the webinar that took place earlier this month.

The case is now being investigated by ICAR.

ICAR Director General Trilochan Mohapatra told IANS that the matter is being probed and action will be taken when the evidence emerges. He said that along with taking action during the investigation, an advisory will also be issued to all institutions.

The incident is linked to the Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research (IISR) in Lucknow, which comes under ICAR. After this incident, an office order was issued on August 24 on behalf of the institute. The order states that no woman worker (research scholar, young professional and contract worker) will sit in any officer's room. The order states that they will always be in the lab or in the field. The institute has said that women workers can work in the lab or field only.

The order states that keeping their safety in mind, women workers will work from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during office hours on all working days. As per the order, they are not allowed to stay in office after 5.30 p.m.

This order was issued by the institute's official who spoke to IANS. The official said that the webinar was organised by NAARM, so they do not have any video footage regarding the incident. He said, "We were not the host of the webinar. So we do not have any video footage, but we got information about the objectionable incident."

He said that no written complaint of the objectionable incident has been received, but on getting information in this regard, this order was issued as an advisory.