Higher education regulator UGC has asked all universities and colleges to install the Narendra Modi government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) logo on their premises and also use it on their website and stationery items.

The University Grants Commission had earlier asked higher educational institutions to set up selfie points with cutouts of Prime Minister Modi.

After being prodded by the ministry of women and child development (MWCD), the UGC has written to the vice-chancellors of all universities and principals of all colleges to use the BBBP logos to create awareness on valuing the girl child. The ministry is running the BBBP scheme to create awareness against gender bias.

“In this regard, MWCD proposed to create awareness on the valuing of girl child and also enclosed the logo and tagline of BBBP. The Higher Educational Institutions are requested to use BBBP logo on the website, portals, stationery items, events and prominent places in the premises of the HEIs. It will convey the commitment of ensuring the rights of girl child and empowerment of women,” said the letter issued by Manish Joshi, the UGC secretary.

“In addition, the details of the activities conducted may also be uploaded along with photos/ videos on the University Activity Monitoring Portal (UAMP) at https://uamo.uec.ac.in/,” the letter said.

Two academics criticised the UGC for dictating to educational institutions what they should do about awareness activities. An official in the ministry of education (MoE) defended the UGC action, saying such awareness activities had greater educational value for society.

Maya John, a member of the Academic Council (AC) of Delhi University (DU), described the UGC letter as a diktat for creating political propaganda for the government. Such activities divert the institution’s focus from critical areas like teaching and research, she said.

“It has become a pattern that the government and the UGC are regularly nudging the educational institutions to conduct activities like awareness on G20 and the Swachhata campaign. These are purely political propaganda,” she said.

There is a continuous effort to interfere with the autonomy of educational institutions, John said.

“The institutions suffer in this process as their focus gets concentrated on holding events. The priority shifts from teaching and research to non-academic activities. The worst thing is the expectation of compliance,” John said.

Such events cost money and involve human resources. The public universities invariably comply with the requests, she said.

A senior academic who did not wish to be identified said that the UGC’s mandate according to the UGC Act was to ensure maintenance of academic standards by universities.

“The UGC is deviating from its core mandate and doing things beyond its domain. The way vice-chancellors are being appointed on the basis of ideology and other non-academic considerations, they do not oppose the government’s diktats passed through the UGC,” he said.

He said the universities should be left to decide on such matters.

A former vice-chancellor of a state university said the diktats should be challenged in court through PILs.

“The UGC is doing this deliberately. This should be challenged in court to stop the UGC and the government from interfering in the affairs of educational institutions over non-academic activities. The UGC should rather suggest how to improve the quality of education, which is on the decline,” he said.

Last month, the UGC had asked the universities and colleges to set up selfie points with cutouts of the Prime Minister. Institutions have been complying with the suggestion.