Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said there is zero-tolerance for sexual harassment on Sports Authority of India (SAI) institutes’ campuses.

Reacting to a The Indian Express report, the Minister said that all pending complaints of sexual harassment at  SAI will be disposed of in the next four weeks.

The report claimed that 45 complaints of sexual harassment were reported at 24 different government-run sports institutes in which little or no action was taken.

The SAI received 35 complaints of sexual harassment from 2011 till 2019. Out of which penalty was imposed in 13 cases, an inquiry is in progress in 15 cases, three were found to be false allegations, while two accused were acquitted by the court.

On the other hand, one accused committed suicide while another complaint was withdrawn. Out of these 35 cases during the above mentioned period, 27 were against coaches while eight were against SAI officials, as reported by Sportstar.

Rijiju said that creating a “safe environment” for athletes is a top priority of his Ministry. The SAI, the nodal body to administer Olympic sports in the country, stated that it has a “robust system” in place to ensure that complaints of sexual harassment are dealt with strictly.

Photo credit: /KirenRijiju