CHENNAI: “I have no idea if my college has a sexual harassment committee. We were not told about it during the orientation and I don’t remember seeing any notice.” These words from a second-year student studying in a women’s college in the heart of the city sums up the working condition of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to deal with sexual harassment in many educational institutions.
According to guidelines set forth by the University Grants Commission (UGC), it is mandatory for all institutions to have an ICC. It is the duty of this committee to deter acts of sexual harassment and conduct investigation and procedures for the resolution, settlement or prosecution.
However, when Express conducted a reality check on the status of these committees in colleges, it found that most committees existed only on paper with students having no idea about the existence of such a system. While universities follow the UGC mandates to set up the ICC, colleges often overlook the need to have one.
The website of the college where the second-year student studies did not have any information on the ICC and was closed for summer vacation, which prevented Express from checking the notice boards.
Only one out of six colleges that Express visited, had advertised the presence of ICC in prominent places such as notice boards, while one college had enlisted the members of the committee in the college calendar, and none of them had any contact details on their website.
In the wake of recent sexual harassment allegations against a faculty member of a popular media college, students said the ICC in their college was defunct, even though the management defended it through a press statement later.
While most students remain unaware of the faculty members of the committee, no student that this newspaper spoke to, knew who the student representatives from their colleges were. Students claimed that they were enlightened about anti-ragging committees, but not about sexual harassment committee.
According to the law, every sexual harassment committee must have a female presiding officer who is the chairperson of the committee, at least two faculty members of which half are women, at least one representative from SC/ST or other minorities, at least one social worker with a minimum of five years experience in dealing with women’s issues and at least two student representatives.
The principal of Loyola College M Arockiasamy Xavier said he had not received any complaint in the last one year. The principal of Madras Christian College claimed that the college committee was robust and students were aware of the committee.
“We have not received any complaint in the recent past. But when we received one a few years ago, we terminated the teacher,” said R W Alexander Jesudasan, principal of the college. He said students usually raise issues to the registrar, who then directs it to the committee.
However, an M Phil student from MCC, who did not want to be identified, said she was not briefed about Internal Complaints Committee during her orientation. She added that students are often hesitant to take incidents of sexual harassment to college management as they may happen outside the campus or when alcohol is involved.
“The college will never be understanding of such circumstances, we may just get blamed for our own behaviour and we will be asked questions that would make us look like a bad person,” she said. However, her principal argued that the college administration would take even incidents happening outside the campus very seriously.
The importance given to the committee was also found to be directly linked with the gender ratio in a college.
The ICCs in exclusive women’s or men’s colleges are not given a lot of importance, said S Sumathi, chairperson of Internal Complaints Committee of Madras University.
“In women’s colleges, students barely face any threat. There are a very few male staff and the incidence of sexual harassment is really low,” she said.
However, she pointed to another worrying trend. Many students have come to ICC with issues, but not even one complaint has been registered in the last few years, she said.
“Students come very agitated on the first day. When their parents come in the next few days, they start worrying about their identity being tarnished,” she said, adding that often victims want nothing more than a verbal apology from the offender.
“As far as I have been here, it has always been a ‘nil report’ as victims don’t like giving anything in black and white,” she claimed, adding that colleges take action based only on what the victims want. She, however, added that a majority of complaints have shown more incidence of emotional harassment where female students were treated in a certain way simply because of their gender.
“Sexual harassment could take multiple forms. It need not always be physical,” said an undergraduate student from a co-education college in the city, who did not want to be named.
“On the one hand, I win oratorical competitions and debates and I am known for my proficiency in language. On the other, student councils choose fairer and prettier looking girls for hosting popular dance or music events and post me at literary events instead and tell me that nerds would like me better. I don’t know, does this count as sexual harassment enough for my college to take it seriously,” she asks.
What the law says...
According to the law, every sexual harassment committee must have a female presiding officer who is the chairperson of the committee, at least two faculty members of which half are women, at least one representative from SC/ST or other minorities, at least one social worker with a minimum of five years experience in dealing with women’s issues and at least two student representatives