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Unsafe Campus, Safe Harassers ?

By Subhash Gatade

08 May, 2007
Countercurrents.org

( Delhi University, which has under its ambit 79 colleges and which caters to more than 7.5 lakh students, and which has remained in the forefront of many a democratic demands of the people in general and teaching community in particular, is today very much in the news albeit for totally wrong reasons. This short note focuses itself on two recent cases of sexual harassment and the way the university administration has tried to deal with them.)

Let us call him Prof X.

A respected faculty in URDU department, a man of (they say) letters, harasses one of his girl students. The poor girl which has fought against heavy odds to reach there, finds her world crumbling down.

A lady teacher in the department (Let us call her Dr Salma) decides to take up her case. Fights a lonely battle. Forces the university administration to conduct an enquiry. But three years on, the enquiry committee has yet to come up with any conclusion.

The respected faculty, supposed to be an Urdu Alim is firmly ensconced in his seat.

And the poor girl, with lot of promise has lost her mental balance.
But can it be said that the matter has ended there with a single tragedy. Little did anyone realize then that daggers were already out for the lady teacher for standing upto this ‘respected faculty’.
It has been more that three months that media reported about the campaign which is being run on the net targeting Dr Salma wherein ‘..Some unknown persons have compiled a piece of literature, pornographic in nature, which stars the Urdu lecturer and mailed it to Urdu faculties and also to Urdu magazines and newspapers.’( (metronow, 7/3/07 Vanita Chitkara, Porn Assault on DU Urdu Teacher)
In an interaction with the reporter Dr Salma has revealed what she says as the ‘unpleasant reality of Urdu Department of Delhi University’ where ‘there is sexual abuse, there is an apathetic and unresponsive university body and there is the age old attempt to force a woman into her place by attacking and maligning her character.’

As of now there has been no breakthrough in the investigation, despite Dr Salma’s lodging a formal complaint with the police.
For all practical purposes the ‘respected’ family still keeps singing paens to Urdu language repeating it umpteen times that it is a language of tehzeeb (culture) and the poor girl, who is undergoing psychiatric treatment, is still trying to come to grips with the real meaning of tehzeeb.

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The case of Prof Vidyut Chakrabarty, the present head of the department of political science, Delhi University, who also holds the posts of Dean of Social Sciences and Director, Gandhi Bhavan (an institution which comes under Delhi University) is more blatant. A section of the media has already reported that Prof Chakrabarty, faces a serious charge of sexual harassment. [City pages of Times of India and Hindu (mainly in the week beginning April 16, 2007, but there are also reports today, May 1, 2007)]

It is now history how the dilly-dallying and initial attempts at cover-up on part of the university authorites forced a lady employee working under him at Gandhi Bhavan, to rush to the media to explain his depredations.

Once the case made headlines the university administration had no other option than to appoint a enquiry committee to look into the case. But it was immediately clear to even a layperson that the top dons of the university were not very serious about the investigation itself and were keen to save one of the senior members of the faculty from any aftermath. And they saw to it that Prof Chakravarty continues to remain in his positions of power and continue to influence the outcome of the case. This despite the fact that Policy on Sexual Harassment (Ordinance XV (D)) passed by the university itself few years back specifically emphasizes the fact that the alleged perpetrator - in all such cases of sexual harassment at the workplace - relinquish all his positions of power or the university administration (temporarily, pending enquiry) relieves him of all or suspends him.

It need be added that the said policy was formulated by the university administration in the backdrop of the Supreme Court Judgement on cases of Sexual Harassment at workplace ( August 1997, Vishakha and others vs, the State of Rajasthan and others) and the guidelines issued by it to make all such ‘workplaces’ free of genderbased violence.

One can oneself imagine the awe inspired by any such head of the department, head of any institution who wields tremendous influence in making/breaking careers. And one easily gather the outcome of the case if the alleged perpetrator is allowed to remain in his post.
Recently this penpusher (or should I say bytepusher) came across an urgent appeal sent by senior members of the department of political science itself who have taken upon themselves the onerous task of helping the valiant woman, in her struggle for dignity and self-respect.

As their letter makes it clear they met the top bosses of the university administration including its vice-chancellor and communicated to them it is not only unethical but illegal that Prof Chakrabarty has still not been asked to step down or has been suspended so that a thorough investigation is done. But they discovered to their dismay that rules or even ordinances are meant for public consumption and not for implementation.

The letter tells us that once the courageous woman went to media’ Prof Chakrabarty's long history of habitual sexual harassment and quid-pro-quo relationships started trickling in. (Much of this had circulated as rumours for years. One incident that is established (in 1991-2) is of a doctoral student being assigned another supervisor after she complained to the Dept about his behaviour. Nothing was done to him.’

Their appeal also gives few details of the manner in which Professor Chakrabarty ‘habitually imparts an oppresively sexual colour to the male-female and especially the teacher-student relationship,’ when he speaks in public and infers that they ‘are inclined to give credence to the complaint from the Gandhi Bhavan employee’

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Both the cases demonstrate a few things very clearly.

- Despite noble intentions of the Supreme Courts in issuing the guidelines, fact remains that they are observed in breach and all the talk of making the workplaces free of sexual violence is still a mirage.
- Looking at the fact that persons in authority ( who normally happens to be the harassers) can never allow any impartial enquiry into their own acts of sexual behaviour, one needs to revisit the guidelines themselves and make third party intervention a must.
- It raises serious questions about the prime institution like Delhi University itself which has refused to lead by example. Gone are the days when it raised its voice in unison against voices of insanity and illiberalism. Gone are the days when it led the teaching community for better quality of life.

One still remembers the sexual harassment case filed against one Prof Bhatia who happened to head one of the departments of Delhi University in mid nineties. There were many complaints against him but very few women dared raise their voice against him. Most of them either left the department unannounced or remaining few continued to suffer in silence. But there was another brave woman who dared to raise her voice. She exposed Prof Bhatia’s depredations and the manner in which he was instrumental in ‘spoiling many a budding careers’.

The case caught imagination of a wide section of university community. There were protests and rallies to take action against Prof Bhatia. Despite the high profile campaign and the support it generated in a section of the media, there was only some symbolic action against him. The man who ‘spoiled many a budding careers’, the man who was a habitual harasser was allowed to retire with ‘dignity’.
You can rightly say that much water has flown down the Jamuna and also add that now things would be different since we have the policy on sexual harassment in our kitty.

Can it be then said that with surety that the case of harassment faced by the student in Urdu or the way porn assault has been unleashed on Dr Salma or for that matter the struggle for dignity launched against Prof Chakrabarty would meet a different fate than one witnessed in case of Bhatias’

Perhaps it would be better to wait for an answer.

Subhash Gatade can be reached at [email protected]

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