Pondicherry University follows the rules barring one vital democratic axiom

The Pondicherry University (PU) has a Sexual Harassment Prevention Committee (SHPC) since 2014. Though it works in accordance with the guidelines provided by UGC Regulation 2015, it fails an important guideline which stresses on the election of student members. The SHPC is a nine-members committee with a faculty member at the senior-most level as the Chairperson, two other faculty members, two external members and three non-teaching employees and a research scholar as a student member. Instead of selecting three student representatives from undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD, through a transparent democratic process, it has cherry-picked one PhD scholar without holding an election. Currently, it is chaired by R Chithra Sivasubramaniam and the meetings are convened by the university joint registrar, who is the ex-officio member secretary of the committee.

Of the seven complaints filed with the SHPC this year, four have been resolved and three complaints are waiting to be addressed. Chairperson R Chithra Sivasubramaniam attributes this delay to the confusion regarding the position of the member-secretary, who is supposed to convene the meetings. This delay in convening the meeting and the lack of intimation disappoint complainants whose problems are yet to be addressed.

When asked about the autonomy of the SHPC and its independence from external interference, M Thanuja, a faculty member, stated that it is very difficult to override the SHPC due to its composition as everything goes in writing. “If there is dissent even from one member, it has to be included in the minutes of the meeting,” said Thanuja. The external member, Rehana Begum, reassured that there was no outside interference in the working of the SHPC.

Despite the SHPC’s claim of dealing with the cases in a satisfactory manner, students’ testimony indicate that the reality is far from these claims. “One of my friends was scarred by an incident which involved serious sexual and physical abuse. She preferred not to file a complaint as she was afraid to talk about it,” a male student said.

A majority of sexual harassment cases in PU go unreported due to the stigma attached to such incidents, the attitudinal problems of fellow mates, the fear of higher authorities (especially when the offenders are faculty), the discouragement by police authorities and security personnel (in case the case goes through them), the failure of the complaint mechanism and the lack of awareness about the SHPC and the delay in its working or the weariness to follow up on cases in an unproductive system.

What does one do when saviours become harassers?

It is an increasingly worrying issue that how the security guards on campus frequently fail to assure the safety of students; rather they turn out to be harassers. In an incident that took place last year, a group of both male and female students from the mass communication department approached the security personnel when they were threatened by a two male students. One of the security personnel in turn shouted back at the female students in the group. “When we complained to security about the incident and asked him to take action, he took off his cap and shouted at us saying, “My duty is over, now let me see what are you going to do about it and continued cornering us with verbal abuse,” said the student requesting anonymity. The two female students went ahead and complained to the SHPC intimating the administration as well. No action ever took place on the complaint except a few phone calls made to the complainants from the administration. And, the security personnel still walk freely and continue to work in the university.

The procedure for checking student ID cards is absolutely inefficient as there has been influx of illegal outsiders into the university. Despite several complaints and protests by students in the past demanding safety on campus, the situation continues to remain the same. A lot of responses from female students point to the problem of trespassers, who indulge in verbal and physical abuse.

Many female students said that even after complaining to security personnel regarding the bad behaviour of some people, they have met with indifference and antagonistic response. “My friend and I were physically assaulted by a stranger inside the campus. We alerted the security and asked them to block his way to outside the campus. But we saw him zooming past in front of us through the main gate,” said Rasmita Saikia. “The Officer on Security Duty, who is in charge of the Vigilance and Security Wing, came only after an hour or half. When we demanded action and nabbing of the wrongdoer, they asked us to wait for two days to recover footage for which they told us to bring our laptop and pen drive. We didn’t follow up because we knew they didn’t want to help us,” added Saikia.

The harassment within academia

Apart from the aforementioned instances, many cases have been registered with SHPC against the students, faculty members and non-teaching employees. In one incident, a non-teaching employee was found guilty and sacked. Recently, a case has been filed against a faculty member (which was formerly sent to the administration) since a group of students had been subjected to slut-shaming and moral policing for a long period of time. “He used to question two female students about their relationships with two of their male friends and warned them to terminate the relationship or that they will fail in the exams. He used to defame a female student about her dress and her character in front of other students, without any particular reason,” said a student from Microbiology department. The complainants claimed that despite their request to not disclose their complaint, the administration failed to do so and revealed case details to the faculty of the respective department.

There have also been complaints against permanent faculty members who have been punished. Also other instances where many faculty members engaged in psychological harassment, especially with research scholars, who are more vulnerable to such situations. In most cases, they prefer to remain silent and suffer or leave their courses.

If you’re a student, professor or an alumnus and want to write/share how your college deals with sexual harassment, the systems to check it or the lack thereof, email us at campus@newslaundry.com