TN Minister Anbil Mahesh on PSBB row: Anti-Sexual Harassment Committees in all schools will be monitored closely, portal for complaints to come up soon

A day after a sexual harassment row rocked the city, with a teacher from the PSBB Senior Secondary School being arrested, Tamil Nadu's Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said that they would immediately order all schools to get their acts in order - by ensuring the Anti-Sexual Harassment Committes are in place, "As you are aware, based on several recommendations made by the courts, every school is required to have a committee to monitor sexual harassment. The head of it will mandatorily be a female teacher. We will ensure that this is enforced seriously in all schools hereafter," he said, speaking to the media on Tuesday. 

When pointed out that the school in question did not necessarily report to the state, he added, "Though the CBSE schools don't come under our purview directly, the School Education Department will be in constant touch with them and monitor the situation" 

As more and more complaints start pouring out in social media, across schools in Chennai, the Minister said that they wanted to start a portal for sexual harassment claims but were mulling over a foolproof system to ensure good teachers didn't get railroaded by the odd disenchanted student, "The police officer investigating this case has also announced a toll-free number where students can get in touch to report sexual harassment and their anonymity will be ensured. We also wished to start a complaint portal online but we are worried about how to separate genuine complaints from fake ones. It's a very sensitive issue and affects the teaching community. We don't want an innocent teacher to have his/her name tarnished simply because they disciplined a student. We are discussing this to get it right before we launch it."