BENGALURU: The compulsory retirement of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) professor Giridhar Madras, ordered following a probe by the institute’s internal committee into charges of sexual harassment made by a student, has failed to instil confidence among the female students and researchers over sexual harassment on the campus.
They point out that sexual harassment in many cases is suffered silently by the victims as they simply prefer to endure it for fear of their ongoing researches, projects or courses being affected if they file a complaint to stop it.Students, researchers and professors, who insisted on remaining unnamed, told The New Indian Express on Wednesday that many cases of sexual harassment at the institute’s campus go unreported.
They said that several cases of sexual harassment have come up after 2015-16, but theprecise number is neither revealed not allowed to be verified, mainly due to the institute’s stringent policy of secrecy in revealing any information - either by the defendant of the complainant - outside, particularly to the media.
Dhriti Chengappa (name changed), a researcher, said she endured more than five years of sexual harassment at IISc. It started when she worked on a project between her post-graduation and PhD, she told TNIE, adding that the professor overseeing the research bombarded her and the other women with crude and humiliating sexual comments.
A student researcher said young female academics and students are particularly vulnerable due to the structure and hierarchy of lab working. “You (may) have privileged access to facilities or equipment and that access comes through that supervisor (who is harassing you). I’ve heard of cases where students have put complaints in and then have been told that they need to change their projects,” the researcher said.
A student researcher from the department of physics at IISc said, “If I am applying for jobs, I would really hope that they don’t know what happened at my institution. A lab group has a strict hierarchical system and they can prevent you from doing your own work.”
Many female researchers and students said that though the university has an exhaustive policy on sexual harassment and how to get counselling, what happens after one reports a case is harassment in another form.IISc director Prof Anurag Kumar could not be reached for comments. Dipshikha Chakravortty, associate professor and a member of the Internal Complaints Committee of IISc, declined to comment on the issue.