A visiting student from the US , enrolled in a Sanskrit course at the prestigious St.Stephen’s college in New Delhi , has filed a complaint accusing a professor of sexual harassment.The student has since left India for the US and the matter is being investigated.(link)

If true, its a particularly disgusting breach of trust but alas per this news item on a study on sexual harassment in Mumbai colleges, not that uncommon. Per the article “61 per cent of the 533 female students interviewed had been sexually harassed in colleges, either by their peers or by staff. ” The article goes on to say “To make matters worse, only 10 per cent of the colleges in the city have Women Development Cells (WDC) to guide and counsel victims of sexual abuse”. Unfortunately, its a fact that sexual harassment – at the place of study or workplace- is not taken seriously enough in the des.

If you think I am being too harsh, I can attest to it through personal experience. Shortly after I moved to the USA, I had to attend a sexual harassment training course which California mandates under AB 1825. What I found amusing in a horrific way was that almost every “no-no” mentioned in the training as being potentially construed as sexual harassment was something I had experienced when I worked in various cities in India and in a male-dominated industry for a while. Off-color jokes, tasteless remarks, unwanted touching ( or attempts to!) were something that I ceased to notice after a while. At that point of time, I did not think of taking any action – not that anyone would have taken me seriously. Knowing what I know now, I would definitely act differently.

Renuka Chowdary , Minister of State for Women and Child development, did announce that the Government in India was planning to introduce bills that curbed sexual harassment at workplaces. I’d be interested to see how serious this is.

Looks like you've just discovered us. Add our RSS feed to keep up with the new posts.