Students speak up against sexual harassment in colleges

Since May 2018, nine cases of sexual harassment have been reported across colleges in Mumbai. But this is the tip of the iceberg, say insiders. Students have little faith that institutes will protect them

It was two years ago, at a college picnic when Pooja R (name changed on request) first confided in her 33-year-old professor about dealing with anxiety and how she'd lost faith in therapy. "At the time, sir suggested that I join his theatre group after college. He said it would help me snap out of whatever I was going through," the graphic design student, studying at an institution affiliated with a foreign university, says. Over the next few weeks, Pooja, now 21, remembers feeling "a lot of better". "In fact, sir had become a close confidant."

Things started getting uncomfortable, when he placed his hand on her thigh, during a rehearsal. "I wasn't sure what to make of it. I thought I was over-thinking and let it pass," she says. It got out of hand, when during a visit to his home, he kissed her on the lips. When she resisted, he kissed her neck. Frozen with fear, she didn't stop him, but later ignored him at college. "He had become such a huge support system that it was difficult to let him go. Yet, that would mean to offer consent to everything else. I eventually gave in." It was only later, when she started seeking professional therapy that she realised she had been emotionally and sexually abused.

In February, another incident came to light at Bhavan's College, Chowpatty, where a student alleged that she had been harassed by her professor who asked sexual favours in return for better grades. Neither Pooja's college nor Bhavan's had a redressal cell in place when the complaints were brought up.
If the #MeToo storm revealed how poorly equipped corporate India is while dealing with sexual harassment cases, Mumbai's educational institutes are perhaps worse off, because the survivors are in their teens and more vulnerable.

The Plane Jar is a youth activism and outreach forum run by 20 year olds, which provides help to those who have suffered sexual harassment and emotional abuse. Pic/Bipin Kokate

'Too powerful to challenge'
In 2017, close on the heels of the Harvey Weinstein #MeToo shocker, Raya Sarkar, then a 24-year-old law student in California, had published a crowd-sourced list on Facebook of professors involved in sexual harassment cases. With over 75 names from more than 30 colleges and universities in India and abroad - including one from a Pune college - the list had for the first time turned the spotlight on predators within the campus.

Yet, the numbers are possibly deceivingly low. Since early last year, nine cases of sexual harassment have come to the fore from colleges in Mumbai alone, pointing out how deep-seated the problem is. In May 2018, a student from a reputed Matunga college, filed a police complaint against her HOD who demanded sexual favours in order to clear her assignment. A few months later, in September, students from Bandra's Rizvi College of Architecture, sported black attire to protest the unprofessional conduct of their faculty after a female student complained about her professor sending inappropriate messages. The cases are, if anything, symptomatic of what is plaguing the city's academic system. And this, despite the existence of Women's Development Cells and the Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs), introduced by the University of Mumbai in 2013, to make colleges a safe space for students.

Last year, students from Bandra's Rizvi College of Architecture protested the conduct of their faculty after a student complained about her professor sending her inappropriate messages. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

It was the growing wave of awareness post #MeToo that got an alumni of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai, from the 2004-06 batch, to speak out on Facebook against a senior faculty member, Professor P Vijayakumar, who she claimed had abused his position and sexually harassed and exploited her during the final months of her course at TISS.

Speaking to mid-day from the US, where she is currently based, the student, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she had refused to do anything about it then, because "the professor had great power in his hands" as he was in-charge of her placement too. "At the time, I did not even have the vocabulary to talk about sexual harassment and wasn't able to identify that what was happening to me was abuse of power. But, it is not just then. Even now, I've students disclose to me that they had similar experiences. But they are afraid to come forward. I am not in India. The person has no power over me anymore, which was why I was able to come forward," she says.

Leena Pujari, Department of Sociology, KC College

Graphic design student
Pooja had only sought help when her professor cut off from her after he was unceremoniously sacked for an entirely different reason. "It's then that I hit a slump. I reached out to a therapist. She later got me to file a police complaint against the professor," she adds. It was after the incident, that her college created a system to address harassment issues.

Another 18-year-old, who was pursuing her junior college from a well-known institute in Bandra, remembers how she was harassed last year by a student from within the institute, with vulgar text messages and calls. "I filed a police complaint, but didn't address it with the college because I had lost faith in my teachers. The previous year, when my best friend's boyfriend [he wasn't from the college] managed to walk into our campus and threatened to throw acid on me, over a fight, I had called the cops for help as the college guards had not reacted. I was later given a dressing down for bringing a bad name to the college, and teachers had turned hostile. How could I trust the same people to take my side?" she asks.

Suraj H, ICC member at TISS Guwahat

That colleges in the city are not doing enough to create awareness about sexual harassment and what recourse students can seek, is also an area of concern. The complainant from Bhavan's College, for instance, says she wasn't afraid to come forward, but did not know whom to approach. "While the University has mandated the establishment of ICC [see box for function] in every college, I was not aware of any such cell in ours. More so, I suspected that no concrete action would be taken against the professor concerned, because of how close he was to senior staff members. I finally decided to approach the management [the trust that runs the college], which asked me to register a complaint with the police."

In an email interview, Sarkar says it's "depressing how little has changed since #MeToo". "Despite guilty verdicts from [the] ICCs, several professors continue to teach. They are handed warnings and nothing else. No reparations have been paid to aggrieved students who are then forced to study in a hostile environment. The administrative bodies in colleges are complicit in enabling sexual harassment and perpetuating a misogynistic workplace culture," she says.

Vandita Morarka, founder of One Future Collective

Not just about women
Among the many stories emerging post #MeToo, the one that stood out was that of a male student from TISS, an alumni himself, who in September last year, complained that he had been "raped" by a guest on campus in 2016.

The boy, though aware of the existing redressal policies, was unable to complain fearing action against him under Section 377, which until September 6 last year, deemed sex among same gender adults criminal. "TISS, back then, had no provision to report cases coming from the LGBTQi community. Somebody advised me against informing the police because Section 377 then criminalised homosexuality," the survivor shares. He found the courage to come forward after the September 2018 judgment by the Supreme Court decriminalising Section 377. He adds, "While TISS is still considered more gender sensitive than other institutions, it is time that harassment faced by the LGBTQi community too finds place in the regulations dealing with sexual harassment."

Why students don't complain
"There are whole lot of reasons [preventing students from complaining]," says Leena Pujari, who teaches at the Department of Sociology, KC College and is the convener of the Gender Issues Cell. "First, there is anxiety and self doubt about what constitutes sexual harassment. Then, there is anxiety about whether their account would be believed in the first place... I don't think our systems inspire confidence in them to be able to speak up," says Pujari.

Suraj H, a former student member of the ICC and student head of GIC at KC, says there were instances of peers approaching them about professors passing sexist comments or behaving inappropriately. "When I asked them what would they like to do about it and if they want to file a complaint with the ICC, they almost always say no. Truth is that we haven't shaken the hierarchy. The students are dependent on the professors. Also, I personally cannot promise the students that they won't face backlash, which women have experienced across the globe. The grades are in their professor's hands, the recommendation letter, and so on," says Suraj, who is currently pursuing his Master's at TISS Guwahati. Suraj adds, "It's difficult for students to come out. One thing is that it is coming from a place of power. The maximum time goes in processing the fact that it happened to you and that it was sexual harassment. That someone who you are culturally taught to look up to as God, is doing that to you, can be very traumatic and disturbing".

The Plane Jar, a youth activism and outreach forum, which is run by 20 year olds, hopes to bridge the gap. Apart from conducting a Child Abuse Awareness and Survivors Assistance (C.A.A.S.A) certificate programme, where students can train to become "social workers or pre-counsellors" to provide help to those who have suffered sexual harassment and emotional abuse, they also conduct workshops and create safe spaces for students, says Shipra Parswani, president of The Plane Jar.

Yuva Sena, the student wing of the Shiv Sena, had recently led a morcha at Bhavan's College, after it found out that the institution did not have an ICC. Durga Bhosale, secretary at the Yuva Sena, says, "How are students supposed to know about their rights? These bodies, which are mandatory in all colleges are supposed to
create awareness among students, while working as grievance redressers."

Denying the absence of the ICC at Bhavan's, principal Shreemant Rathod, says, "The ICC was formed in 2017. I do not understand why the student did not approach the cell. However, we are now strengthening the awareness programme." Shruti Barber, principal of Rizvi, says they "reconstituted the ICC" post the 2018 incident. "We are also creating awareness about it on campus."

What colleges are doing
Last week, the GIC of KC College, in collaboration with the University of Mumbai's Women's Development Cell organised a three-day workshop to raise awareness on prevention of sexual harassment in colleges. Pujari feels that introspection had kicked off in colleges, and the workshop was an attempt in that direction.

Before the constitution of the ICC under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, which currently looks at harassment related cases, the University had established the Women's Development Cell in 2001, to look into the same.

Today, the WDC is tasked with promoting gender sensitisation programmes. "Both these bodies [ICC and WDC] are expected to work closely with each other, though the autonomy of the ICC has to be maintained. The University's WDC (UWDC) has organised self-defence workshops with a gender sensitive approach.

We have also undertaken a gender audit exercise in association with Akshara [NGO that focuses on empowering women and girls]," says Dr Gita Chadha, chairperson of the UWDC.

The University, Dr Chadha says, is now trying to provide a mechanism for prevention, prohibition and redressal for all categories of students, including male students who are sexually harassed by other men. "Our proposed Ordinance, which will soon be released, is an attempt by our University to combine the best principles of the Sexual Harassment Act of 2013 and the UGC regulations of 2016 on the same. We are using the principle of beneficent construction to uphold the spirit of the law and the regulations and provide all stakeholders with suitable mechanisms," she says.

But Vandita Morarka, founder of One Future Collective that has been conducting training programmes at colleges in Mumbai and New Delhi, to help students navigate the legalities of harassment, says that saying the current law doesn't work and trying to set up more redressal mechanisms might not be the answer to the problem. "How many alternative redressal mechanisms can you build? I would suggest strengthening the existing ones. These committees should have more student and external representation. We also need to create systems that are more transparent and actionable. I understand confidentiality, but they [colleges] need to create a safer space, as students fear repercussions. If you have someone in a position of authority on it, you don't know what the repercussion is going to be outside [for the student]."

Pujari says that the challenges are too many. "While the GIC has been passionately involved in creating gender enabling and gender-friendly spaces on campus, we feel we still haven't reached out fully to the students of the commerce and science section and the professional courses," she says. "Hierarchy and power in classrooms legitimise a linear narrative. Students are passive listeners and teachers' are active producers of knowledge. [The onus of addressing it] cannot rest on gender cells alone. Every committee, cell and association on campus, faculty and students alike must spearhead a gender consciousness and call out sexual predators."

KC College's Gender Issues Cell
In order to make existing platforms more "inclusive of multiple genders", the Women's Development Cell at KC College in Churchgate repositioned itself as the Gender Issues Cell (GIC).

This cell, like the WDC, has representatives from the teaching and non-teaching staff and student representatives, besides an NGO member. "While the ICC exists as a statutory mechanism to inquire into complaints of sexual harassment, sometimes the GIC receives verbal complaints from students about certain inappropriate comments made by teachers, non- teaching staff and peers," says Leena Pujari, convener of GIC. These complaints are promptly addressed thanks to a supportive administration, say students. But, the greater concern is the heteronormative bias within educational campuses.

"The bigger challenge for GIC now is to sensitise students and staff to issues of queer rights on campus and the use of gender neutral vocabulary and non cis-gender narratives in the classroom. We have to traverse a long journey on this," adds Pujari.

How the ICC works
* The survivor is required to submit a written complaint to the ICC within three months from the date of the incident. As an exception to the rule, TISS took up the incident against Prof P Vijayakumar, despite a delay of more than 10 years. Shalini Bharat, director of TISS, said that the professor has been asked to remain on leave as the enquiry is on

* The ICC on receipt of the complaint, sends one copy of the complaint to the respondent. Upon receipt of the copy of the complaint, the respondent files his or her reply to the complaint along with the list of documents and names and addresses of witnesses

* The inquiry has to be completed within 90 days from the receipt of the complaint. The executive authority of the Higher Education Institution acts on the recommendation of the committee

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