To
Dr. M. Mangapati Pallam Raju
The Minister of Human Resource Development
Government of India
Sir,
Subject: Case of Sexual Harassment and Ragging in Pondicherry University
We wish to bring to your notice the appalling response of the Pondicherry University (PU) administration to the serious incidents of sexual harassment, ragging and intimidation of girl students in the university. Instead of punishing the perpetrators of the above-mentioned crimes, the PU administration has chosen to suspend the complainants and the students who stood by them.
The background to the recent developments is as follows. Kavya M. and Vidya T. Appukkuttan, who are first year students of M.A. Mass Communication and M.A. English, were ragged by Sreejith, a senior student of the Department of Physical Education on 21st September 2013. Jithu verbally abused the girls and when the girls told him that this is not the way he should talk, he threatened to rape them. He said that in the two years of the girls’ course of study in the University, he would assault them physically at any cost. He also used vulgar gestures at them. A day after the incident, this very same person went to the girls and told them that if they complained, he would sexually assault them. Monu, a friend of Kavya and Vidya who was with them when the first incident happened, was threatened by Sreejith that if the girls go ahead with the complaint, Sreejith would make their image stigmatized as ‘the girls who were sexually assaulted by Sreejith’.
The girl students subsequently filed a complaint, and the Kallapett police filed an FIR against the aggressor under IPC sections 506 and 509. The students who supported the girl students in filing the complaint were under constant threat, and on the morning of 1 October 2013, a gang of hooligans including Jithu manhandled them. They threatened that they would cut off the legs of those students who stood with the girl students if Jithu and other assailants are suspended from the University because of the complaint filed by the girl students. The gang also brutally beat up one of the students; his tooth was broken and he had to be admitted in JIPMER, Pondicherry. The security personnel of the University remained mute spectators throughout even as the gang unleashed violence.
When the girl complainant approached the Vice-Chancellor with her grievance, she was discouraged from filing the complaint – the VC’s prime “concern” was that the “reputation” of the institution would be spoiled. Such insensitivity of the University authorities has been one of the prime causes for the continuance of instances of sexual harassment in the campus. Following recent incidents, the students are under constant fear of being attacked at any moment. Ever since she filed the complaint, the girl student who was harassed has been continuously subjected to intimidation and threatened that she wouldn’t be allowed to complete her course of study in the University. Even more shockingly, the attempts to intimidate her were being led by Mr. Praveen, a faculty member of the Department of Physical Education. There are also attempts to divert attention from the matter by fabricating false cases against the students who helped the girls in filing the complaint against the attacker.
The students of the University conducted a protest on 1 October night against the aforesaid criminal acts in the campus. The protest saw massive participation of girl students and others. The students demanded that the University must take steps on an urgent basis to stop ragging, sexual harassment and goonda raj in the campus, and that the University must set up a Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) to address complaints of sexual harassment in the University.
But in a decision that is illogical, irrational and shocking, the PU administration has issued a memorandum, signed by the university Registrar, suspending the two girl students (Kavya M., and Vidya T. Appukuttan) and five other students (N. C. Monu, P. V. Abhijith, B. Abhijith, Rony Paulose and K. Jyotish) who stood by them. In the memorandum ((PU/AS/Aca-10/Regr./2013-14/DA/07, dated 01.11.2013), the university administration has sought to equate the aggressors and the victims by portraying the acts of sexual harassment and ragging as a case of “mutual fight and exchange of abusive words”. The other charges are even more ridiculous – “having approached the media to release the news without obtaining due permission from the University” and having organised “unauthorised protests within the university campus” are the other “crimes” that the students have supposedly engaged in. These charges and the decision based on it are totally unjust, as any democratic-minded citizen of our country would know. After all, the right to protest against injustice constitutes the very essence of democracy. The right to freedom of speech and expression, and the right to assemble peaceably and without arms are part of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
We request the Ministry of Human Resource Development to urgently intervene to ensure that the Pondicherry University promptly takes steps, (a) to revoke the suspension order of the seven students (the complainants and those who stood by them) immediately, (b) to ensure the safety and security of girl students in the campus, (c) to punish the culprits in the case in an exemplary manner, and (d) for GSCASH to be set up in the University immediately as the students have been demanding. It is disturbing that sixteen years after the Supreme Court (in its Vishaka judgement of 1997) laid down binding directives regarding the formation of committees to deal with cases of sexual harassment, and in spite of the recently passed law against sexual harassment in workplaces, GSCASH has not been formed even in most central Universities. We demand that steps must be taken to ensure punishment to those who indulge in ragging in campuses, and that GSCASH be constituted in all Universities and colleges in India in order to effectively address cases of sexual harassment in campuses and to sensitise students on gender issues.
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
Dr. V. Sivadasan,
All India President,
Students’ Federation of India.
4, Ashoka Road, New Delhi – 110 001.
Mob.+91 9013260017, +91 9447320820
