new delhi the sports authority of india sai acknowledged that punishments need to be harsher for those found guilty of sexual harassment at its institutes but rejected criticism that the menace is rampantstung by a report which claimed that 45 cases of sexual harassment were reported from 24 sai institutes over the last 10 years the nodal body to administer olympic sports in the country asserted that a robust system and substantive deterrents are in place to deal with such caseshowever speaking to pti a top official on conditions of anonymity conceded that punishments which currently range from transfers to cuts in pay and pension to suspensions and bans ought to be more stringenti agree the punishments need to be harsher but its a policy decision which can only be changed at the ministerial level he saidas per sai records since 2011 till 2019 the sai received 35 complaints of sexual harassment out of which penalty was imposed in 13 cases while inquiry is in progress in 15 casesthree were found to be false allegations while two accused were acquitted by the court one accused committed suicide while another complaint was withdrawnout of these 35 cases 27 were against coaches while eight were against sai officialsthe sports ministry under whose jurisdiction sai functions pointed to some data of its own to highlight that sexual harassment cases were more of an aberration than the normevery year around 15000 athletes sign up to get training in different sai facilities all over the country out of this 4000 to 5000 go on to compete in national and international competitions it means around 150000 athletes were trained at sai facilities in the last 10 years the official saidalong with its head office in delhi where the sexual harassment committee is headed by regional director meena bora sai has 12 regional committees to deal with complaintsthe report says 45 sexual harassment cases were reported over the last 10 years if we go by the figures these 45 cases were out of 150000 so the percentage stands at 003 he addedwhat does it say it only says that we have a robust system and deterrents in placeas per the reported data 29 of the 45 complaints from 2010 to 2019 were against coachesa sai official said some these complaints were found to be false allegations but did not specify the numbers the official also said that some cases are still pending and are under investigationthere is a system in place in case of a sexual harassment complaint an impartial inquiry is conducted and if the accused is found guilty action is taken against him or her he saidsometimes false allegations also come up after inquiry he addedas per the prevalent norms the sai constitutes an internal complaint committee at every region with a senior lady as chairperson after receiving a sexual harassment complaintthe panel also includes representatives of ngo with majority of committee members as ladiesbesides the sai also conducts workshop in local languages in every