Aligarh Muslim, Mumbai, Nagpur, Cochin, Andhra and Saurashtra universities are the other centres chosen to ``spread human rights'' culture amongst the students'' in accordance with the UGC's ninth plan agenda. The criteria for selection of the faculty is still being periodically debated in various committees set up by the UGC. A committee -- comprising teachers from various disciplines -- instituted to prepare an approach paper took a full year to deliver. The UGC has now set up another committee led by Delhi University proctor Prof Moolchand Sharma ``to devise ways to implement the strategies mentioned in the approach paper''. Sharma has been appointed as the national consultant on human rights education in India.

Three multi-disciplinary workshops on human rights education were held in Shimla, Bangalore and Delhi to decide the syllabus. Non-governmental organisations and social action groups participated in the academic workshops. Says Prof Sharma: ``We intend to include international, national and regional perspective on human rights in the syllabus. We will also incorporate issues of social and economic justice and gender-related problems. However, we are at a preliminary stage and are still debating the contents of the syllabus.''

As for the appointment of staff, UGC has sent broad guidelines to the universities stating that the ``staff should have multi-disciplinary experience''. No specific requirements have been mentioned.

The human rights committee is still debating whether human rights education should be made compulsory for all or if it should be studied as a specialised paper. They are also debating whether human rights education should be made a part of the syllabus of every course. The fourth alternative, says Sharma, is to combine all these strategies.