Bengaluru: Colleges and universities are institutions of learning, but they are not immune to incidents of sexual misconduct and harassment, as revealed by an incident at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc), where a much-feted professor and scientist, Prof. Giridhar Madras, was forced to take “compulsory retirement” after the institute’s Internal Complaints/ Grievances Committee (ICC) found allegations against him to be true.
Deccan Chronicle on Wednesday interacted with students and institution heads to elicit their opinion on the incident. But most of the stakeholders were not clear as to how to prevent such incidents in the future and how to ensure safety and justice to victims.
Mr Ajay Kamath, Bengaluru district president, All-India Students Democratic Organisation (AIDSO), revealed that over the past decade, many women research scholars had complained about their PhD guides seeking sexual favours to clear their doctoral theses. “Earlier, such cases came out in the open more easily as colleges had elected student unions to support students and to represent their grievances. The case at IISc and the action taken is welcome as this will encourage more victims to speak up against such incidents within institutions,” he said.
A victim, Gayatri (name changed), a final-year postgraduate student in a college affiliated to Bangalore University (BU), said that the process involved in lodging a sexual misconduct complaint against one of her professors was “challenging and tedious” and she had to face “victimisation”.
She said the college had not formed an (ICC) when she sought help from the authorities. “It took more than a month for the committee to be set up, that too after I gathered support from my friends at college. When the committee took upthe issue, it was even more disappointing to know that my identity had been easily revealed to the guilty professor by another faculty member who headed the committee. It made the situation worse for me. This should stop and such perpetuators should be held accountable,” she said.
