Harassment of women in Indian academics and research
B. B. Goel
Friday, 07 August 2009 13:28 UTC
It’s a very hush, hush topic in Indian academics. In personal discussion many people talk about it but there is no systemic study, no real system to safe guard people against sexual harassment. We all know how different it is to pass laws and its proper implementation in countries like India. Let’s start a new topic in this regard.
From my personal experience I know that it’s wide spread in every sphere of life in India, including Indian higher education and research circle. If you venture out in open public life, in more competitive corporate career in India, you can expect a far worse situation. I have never seen any young women in India walking freely in any public place, public transport and so on. Everyone is on some kind of “guard”.
I think only few selected faculties and some senior staff are involved in such activities to harass women. Although they are minority but they are powerful enough to make other faculties and students silent. Again it’s a reflection of our conservative society. Contrary to our general belief that India is safe for children and women, more than half of Indian kids are abused (much worse than US or Europe), more unfortunately, it’s not done by outsiders but relatives and family members. “We only take a false pride of the fact that 70% of the children never reported the abuse”. Check the following report by Indian govt and Indian express (Courtsey Jayant’s Blog).
Affected women also tolerate such nonsense behavior mainly due to faulty upbringing (to accept crimes and corruption in the name of “reality” and male folks never respect women in the family), social pressure and non efffective legal system. Some women might exploit it to get some extra privileges, as alleged.
Many male folks do not have sufficient experiences themselves and knows about such activities only through very close friends or wives. And the picture we get through such second-hand experiences is really scary. You need to remember that the best solution of a problem is to expose that first (in public), build public opinion and then act on personal basis first to encourage others to do the same. I think women are the best people to discuss it better. All right minded people should and some will support such efforts to make our society little cleaner and more open.
Updated 07 August 2009 13:30 UTC
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Anonymous
in post # 12, second line please read
There are good forums where Woman in Science (in India) can bring their matters of ‘gender bias’. Please refer to
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Anonymous
Also found this article in Nature 460, 1082 (27 August 2009) | doi:10.1038/4601082a; Published online 26 August 2009
Bridging the gender gap in Indian science -
Anonymous
Can anyone tells me (with ref. or link from a reputed web site or journal): what is the % of women as researchers in CSIR/DBT labs and what is the % of women in permanent faculties in those labs?
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Anonymous
For anonymous #10-14. One Kiran Bedi in Indian Police or publishing biography of Indira Gandhi does not indicate the status of women in India. Does it? Many of south east asian countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka had very powerful women PM or president for long time. But that did not do much for women issues. The condition of women in those countries did not improve under such women rulers. Those ladies did not represent general women of those countries.
“He/she cannot help anyone who is not willing to help themselves”- I think anonymous does not know the difference between self-help and coercing/bullying. People in autocratic countries like North Korea or Iran can not be blamed for “not helping themselves”. In India we do not allow women to flourish, to develop as a natural human being. I hope he will accept that Indian women are not represented by few women in metro cities, in sparkling shopping malls. -
Anonymous
This is for #15. Some years ago I attended a seminar by CSIR. There I learned that % of women as researchers (as JRF, SRF, RA) were about 70% while the % of faculties are below 5 in CSIR institutes. I do not have any latest data regarding that. Here we need to remember that this huge discrepancy is not all due to “harassment” but for many facts like:
1. Indian women generally are not very career minded. Many just join research for time-pass till they/their families get a suitable match to get married.
2. Once married majority of them leave active career in research.
3. Few come back (or allowed to come back) mainly due to economic pressure.
4. After first kid is born, many of the few remaining ones drop out.
5. Many faculties like to recruit women as they are perceived as “less aggressive”, more amenable to pressure and have a higher chance to remain in the same lab/city for longer duration.It will take a lot of social changes to increase participation of women in science in India (just like many other professions).
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Anonymous
This is a reply to post # 16 and to initial discussion (and I am anonymous # 10)
I thought we are talking about the harassment of women in Indian academics and research. This assumes that these women are by now educated enough (because they are doing some kind of research) or aware enough to stand against the unfair treatment they might be getting. And my post # 12 is just suggesting that there are ways that such issues can be easily brought to authorities through number of ways. If so called ‘educated women’ show enough courage then she can make things happen in their side.
I am a hardcore feminist who believes in herself and I think that we are not in need of men’s protective umbrella for everything and anything. We should just stand up and act against the odds we face. And how women can help themselves here is the example
“India’s pink vigilante women"(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7068875.stm). This example may not be the perfect one, but women can help themselves in country like India. Does this link or the link sent earlier in post # 12 represent status of Indian women, may be not, and so is the truth of this discussion that condition of women in Indian science is not any different than women in any other country in science. So why ‘Sky falling’ on India only……..Beyond harassment there are many other reasons why women faculty members are less in India. And many might agree that just because a women is working it can not be correlated with the women upliftment in the society.
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I agree with many of the comments here, including those from anonymous #16, #17 and #18. Harassment of women in India is not restricted to science. Harassment of women in research establishments (or any other office) only reflects the general status of women in that society.
I think there is a huge difference between “education” and doing jobs and gathering degrees. Mere degrees and employment does not give anyone (women or men) the courage and knowledge to affectively oppose any form of corruption (be it sexual harassment or otherwise). But it surely hurts more when we see the same trend of general society within the four walls of a research establishment, among the people who are highly “privileged” and role model for many in surrounding communities there (and “educated” in the eyes of an illiterate person). -
Anonymous
Well, you are giving an impression that women are in danger in academics and research. This is far from truth. Of course, there are exploitation of women depending on their situation. Not all women are prone to exploitation or harassement. I have done my PhD in India and our group of aroun 15 or more PhD students with beginners to those who are about to graduate, more than 50% are females, and I never saw anything that is specially harassing for women per se. Most of the advisors try to exploit an individuals situation, or try to do favours if the person is rich, has good connection etc. I think you should not generalize and give a horrifying picture only about research. What you say is applicable in general, irrespective of gender/cast/relious/language bias.
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Anonymous
Your (#20) PhD group in India may be not that unfortunate but many Indian women feel threatened and vulnerable. I know one group in one CSIR lab in India where director (very powerful person in CSIR) used to take mainly women in his lab. There were about 22 women and only 2 male researchers in his own lab. He used to send many of those, mainly few selected ones to open crop fields to “collect data” while raining. That director never touched any male scholar but we observed that he had habit to “appreciate” only women scholars by touching them on their back. One female senior scholar of that institute sued him and the institute for wrongful recruitment and “emotionally exploiting” her “in false promise of selecting her for a faculty position”. She may be wrong and just trying to take revenge for not getting selected for a faculty position in the institute, but she may be right as well. In India, students and junior staff have almost no proper redressal forum to seek justice in such cases. But I must admit that male students are no less harassed, may not be sexually but surely mentally and research-wise as well. You may argue that it’s all pervasive in Indian society, but that does not make it right in research institutes. We need to find/establish suitable and neutral ways to address such grievances in impartial and time-bound manner at organization/institutional level.
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