In order to carry out an exhaustive enquiry, I am writing this as a proponent speaking against the “Name and Shame” campaign and its doings to the long struggle against sexual harassment, as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

For people who argue that legal process do not amount to anything in the end, especially people who are studying or working in educational institutions in Delhi, I guess, more than anything else, it is a wakeup call to revolt against this very fact within your universities.

Graduating from a college (Lady Shri Ram College)  that claims to be the powerhouse of the feminist struggle in the country, it’s rather sad to state that the Committee Against Sexual Harassment (CASH) was never actually operational at LSR, during my three years there. Not only were the contact numbers old, LSR never witnessed any CASH elections during those three years. And whatever protests happened, had a rather discreet demise, which stands true for most of the Delhi University colleges at the very least. The fact that they’re not operative in the first place can be contested at higher domains, legally, outside the college/university.

Currently, being a student representative in the Internal Complaints Committee (CASH-ICC) at my current university (Tata Institute of Social Science, Guwahati), I’m rather grateful that things do work out while following procedure. 

The fault rather lies with the fact that the functionaries aren’t operating. The legal system won’t acknowledge the anonymously listed names of alleged perpetrators, and sadly, no legal enquiry can take place. On the social scale, in the absence of any legal proceedings, this will die out eventually.

On the day of the orientation of the Gender Amity Committee at TISS, the convenor pointed out that ever since the campus was moved from the city’s centre to the outskirts, the numbers of cases that have been reported have really dropped and that isn’t something which the committee feels proud of. It is rather worrisome. Nevertheless, at least 4 cases within the last 3 months have been reported, registered, heard, while operating as a civil court, and minutes were noted down for.

At TISS Guwahati, while not suggesting that the system in place is perfect, I am rather highlighting the fact that we follow a procedure, mutually agreed upon by all of the members of the committee. The internal complaints committee comprises of both nominated (in the context of employees) and elected (student representatives) members, including (a) a Presiding Officer who is a senior faculty member (at the University level, mostly a professor), (b) 2-4 faculty members along with 2 non-teaching staff members committed to causes pertaining to women or with a legal background, (c) 3-4 students from amongst the undergraduate, master’s and research scholar levels along with (d) a member from a non-governmental organisation agreed upon by the executive authority. We also seek help from legal advisors in cases that require such attention. In addition, we try to have women represent at least one-half of the committee.

Unfortunately, none of this can stand true while talking about Delhi university colleges (even the supposedly prestigious ones), as per my engagements while I was an undergraduate student. LSR does have a board up in its cafeteria with names and numbers of a couple of its members. However, I’m not even sure if those numbers are presently operative, to begin with. While I’ve never witnessed an election, the board fails to mention the names of any student members. 

When I had to file a complaint regarding an incident that occurred right outside the back gate of the college, I was told that the college’s responsibility was limited to incidents that happen on the campus despite the UGC guidelines clearly stating the meaning of a workplace. According to which, the cases that are meant to be registered and heard by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) also includes:

1) Any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment including transportation provided by the employer for undertaking such journey

2) A dwelling place or a house

Defunct ICCs are common across North and South Campus colleges, merely, with one or two exceptions. Colleges or even the DU administration fails to provide any backing to female students, who want to register cases of molestation or sexual harassment. For instance, the DU administration overlooked the cases of molestation and manhandling of female students, including those from LSR during the Ramjas College violence in February this year. Students including some from LSR had to ghero the Delhi Police headquarters in order to make them file first information reports.

As asserted by various other articles and social media posts, in addition to the #metoo campaign, this is an alarming moment that requires great mobilisation and fair reasoning to enable a revolution. While the supposed system exists ambiguously on papers, it hasn’t functioned ever. It is the time to capitalise on the present momentum, and force institutions to create ICCs – which are not only effective but also have a fair amount of student representation.

These needs and demands have to be addressed publicly. Armchair criticism of the vigilant stance, supposedly dealing with the present uproar, is not going to be enough. The criticism has to come from within the system with the failings being pointed out publically.

Conclusively, it is necessary to realise that while protesting for women’s issues, more often than not, the issue of dealing with sexual harassment gets homogenised with a million other causes, losing the bare minimum base it could build upon within this country.