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Sexual harassment is prevalent in educational institutions and only a few of them are equipped to deal with cases

Pawandeep Kaur Delhi
Stuti, a private college student, Delhi, was embarrassed to reveal, "One of my lecturers called me up at around 10:30 at night and spoke to me for about 15 minutes over the phone, all the while asking suggestive questions. He also asked for the phone numbers of other girls whom he could call up."

Manisha, a Delhi University student, narrates, "The administration officer of our college leches at the girls. Luckily we have to go there only once, that too at the time of submitting fees."

Parul, another student of a private college, Delhi, shares, "I was shocked when a visiting faculty approached me and kissed my hand in the classroom. It was absolutely unwelcome and undesirable."

They represent a larger section of women going through sexual harassment in various educational institutes. Their experiences show that the phenomenon is widespread at all levels and that reality has been shielded from public eye, leaving many survivors hurt and troubled.

Sexual harassment is any unwanted attention imposed upon an individual
and amounts to acts of mental, emotional and physical misconduct against them. It has been talked about with regard to the workplace, but not so much in educational institutions.

The supreme court's Vishakha guidelines (1997) gave judicial recognition to sexual harassment at the workplace. They recommend, inter alia, constituting a proper complaint mechanism including a complaints committee headed by a woman for redressal of grievances at workplaces. There is a gap between rescriptions and their implementation.

Universities such as Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi have their own set of policies formulated according to the Vishakha guidelines and their own structure in order to deal with the issue. According to Vidhu Verma, chairperson, Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), JNU, "GSCASH has been more successful in JNU as compared to other universities. It carefully handles the cases pertaining to students, service providers, staff and others in JNU." She added that constituting such a committee helps in warding off many such cases. Malashri Lal, director, Women Studies, DU, concurs, "It is mandatory for campuses to have such a policy, it is law of the land."

In contrast, some affiliated private institutions do not have a requisite cell and some of them seem oblivious to its requirement. "There is no complaints' mechanism for sexual harassment in our institute. Ours is a close-knit institution where no such case has come up," says Usha Krishnan, director, New Delhi Institute for Information Technology. There is no female faculty in this institute (apart from Krishnan herself) and it is common for male faculty to slap girl students on their backs, among other familiarities, according to students.

Amit Gupta, chairperson, Jagannath International Management School, Delhi, states, "Our complaints committee was formed about two and a half years back when we got a notice from the IP University and at present it is functioning properly." The students had no idea about the existence of such a committee.
Legally, educational institutions are not bound to abide by the guidelines.
Advocating for an extension of the scope of the guidelines, and their conversion into law, is the Human Rights Law Network. A public interest litigation (Medha Kotwal v/s Union of India) is pending before supreme court towards this end.

Shruti Pandey, lawyer with the organisation, explains, "The universities, if they have any complaints mechanism, are doing it all voluntarily. University Grants Commission realised the importance of Vishakha judgement and ecommended the universities to institute policies against sexual harassment."

Along with committees, there is need to generate awareness about the issue. "Having staged our play Mahaul Badalna Hai on sexual harassment in JNU and Daulat Ram college, we have also organised self-defence workshops in colleges," informs Deepti, spokesperson with Saheli, a women's rights organisation. Several seminars and workshops on this issue are organised in DU throughout the year according to Malashri Lal.

Sexual harassment takes different forms. There is the power game of the supervisor over the student, phone calls, sms/mms, and ragging, among the variety. "We have encountered cases wherein a schizophrenic was writing letters in blood to a girl and there have also been politicisation of events due to personal grudges between two foes," shares Verma. Caste, class and other issues complicate the picture. Cases of boys/men being harassed are also recorded. The issues are delicate and have to be handled with sensitivity and with confidentiality.

"It is each person's decision at the end of the day," says Deepti. Once they decide to pursue justice, the law should enable it, and there should be a conducive atmosphere for the realisation of the right to a safe environment for all members of a workplace or educational institution.