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If there was one place in Kolkata where women could feel safe, it was Jadavpur University campus. However, the handling of a molestation complaint made by a student has sullied that image, and highlights the callousness with which sexual harassment cases are handled on campuses everywhere in India.
The internal inquiry committee of JU asked the girl what she was wearing on the night of the incident. Coming from an ‘educated’ group in a university known to be politically ‘aware’, the question was a shocker. Demanding a transparent inquiry committee, students gheraoed the Vice-Chancellor. The sit-in was peaceful; still, they were lathi-charged. Worse, the State Government is trying to defend the action by calling the students ‘drug addicts’ and violent. Video recordings clearly show the police and plain-clothed attackers beating up the students who were not even threatening to harm the VC.
A cell for sexual harassment issues — now called the Internal Complaints Committee,after the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment in the Workplace law of 2013 came into being — has been operational since 2000. But that addresses the concerns of employees. Students are not employees and have no legal cover. This lacuna needs to be addressed.
The law may be inadequate but solidarity has made up for that. Some 50,000 protesters went in a procession to the Governor demanding the resignation of the VC, a new inquiry committee to look into the complaint, and an inquiry into calling in the police to beat up students demonstrating peacefully.
Professors have extended their support to the students; some of them are planning to take classes on pavements in defiance of a High Court directive that says ID cards have to be shown to enter the university premises. If this is the story in JU, one shudders to think what takes place in institutions with a lower profile and resources.
(Srabasti Dey is Sub-editor)
Clarification: The Internal Complaints Committee has no connection with the previous mechanism dealing with sexual harassment issues, called the Gender and Action Against Sexual Harassment cell, which stopped functioning due to internal problems. And although students are not employees, they are entitled to legal cover. However, the law is inadequate to handle campus-specific cases.
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