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
-
Replies
Jump to resultsResults
-
i agree with B.B.Goel’s all the view about
the harrasement of women in india.
http://www.stickywebmedia.com -
Thank you very much for bringing up this topic.
I have spend about 8 years in one of India’s esteemed institutions. Yes there is quite an amount of sexual harrassment. THankfully, I have finished my PhD and am out of that place. Seqxual harrassment is very much a reality. I have experienced it from apostdoc who thought that he can get away with it because he was apostdcoc and I am an ‘city girl’, away from home and only a PhD student. The ‘urban girl’ being equated to ‘easy’ is a concept I have no idea how many men I have met IN SCIENCE still seem to caryy. The second aspect is about power difference. I was molested by a senior in the lab and now he is a new faculty in a newly established institute of natioanl repute. At that time, I was much younger and frighetened and did not know about getting redressal. But later when a postdoc started misusing the lab spaces to touch, bump into ‘by mistake’, stare etc…I finally confronted him after suffering for almost one year. The result…he denied everything. Fortunately, by now we had abetter wormen’s commitee, so he was afarid of getting into trouble. So finally his abuse stopped. But he was angry with me till the end. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Staying within the campus, one had to deal with stalkers (all PhD students by the way!), oglers and people who would slander your name, for no reason excepct that they get intimidated by an independent who does not live to serve a man.
The mess where we ate was a place for men to sit and stare at the women, top to bottom. There was no escape. If one stared back, they would stare more! It did not feel to me any different than the raodside locality of ineducated omeaos when I was growing up. Education does not equal awareness or character.
I finally confronted an older man in the mess who deliberately sat opposite me and kept leering at me. Well, long story short, I got punished for standing up for my self respect. Other men in the mess were frighetened of me, so tried to provoke me by starinhg, the women spoke about me in hushed wishpers and I could sense them trying to judge me by my ‘dressing’, whether I was a ‘good girl’ or a’slut’, that I have male friends. Therefore I must be ‘asking to be abused’. I wrote a mail in the students forum to address this issue. I copuld very well see that it happened to many women around me.
The anger at me increased. The men reacted with very string and angry mails as though I committed a crime by speaking up againts them. Some of them wrote mean and disrespectful things.Only 2-3 women came forward with their stories. It was obvious that many did not feel courageous to do so after they saw the negative attention I received. Many others denied and pretended that since they were ‘good girls’, they ahve to be resogned to live ‘in their place in the society’.
Finnaly the issue was closed, the topic was closed to discussion and everybody went back to feeling OK. Well for me all this attention ensured that my next 3 months in the camopus were more peaceful. Nobody dared to stare directly at me.
All my contribution to research aside, I am proud of having spoken up, of publicly confronting someone who was repeatedly troubling me and creating a confortable space for myself for atleast some time.
But I know, that if I had needed to stay longer in the campus, life would have become much more difficult. I am abriad right now and although I do not want to be a racist, I honestly feel much more respected here and face less obvious ogles or intrusions into my privacy than in India. That certainly has to change. And more women will comforward if there is a provision to protect them. Otherwise one has to suffer from the abuse and the backlash too.
O and also to add, being single in India means that one is ‘free for the taking!’ I realised that when I was in a relatioship, I exerienced less abuse than when I broke up. It was not that somebody was woooing for attention. It was that ‘she is vulnerable’. ‘What will she do’. She has no man.
Eventhough, I was a PhD student, quite independent and living on my own money and I must add somewhat better than the men at work! -
It’s is really a matter of great concern that such molesters are being recruited as faculties. Sub-standard people neither can do great research nor inspire good citizens or honesty (scientific or social) among his/her students. All such wrong people, who are recruited via nepotism or other forms of corruption, very well know that all hue and cries will subside soon; no action will be taken against them. They will reign supreme as faculties and in due time, will climb up the hierarchy ladder. I feel sorry for those young Indian students who shape their career and character by such crooks at an early stage of their lives.
-
Anonymous
Do you want to know why India cannot implement equal rights to women in reality (I don’t care what is written in a book called “constitution”, unless it’s impartially implemented and practiced)? Why we have so many crooks decorating majority of high positions in ministries and scientific bodies and allowing almost anyone powerful to do whatever they like, even if that goes against Indian constitution and ethos of true Indian culture of centuries old? Just read the following article in Indian Express by Tavleen Singh: The Home Minister needs enlightenment.
-
Anonymous
Here is another news for people who thinks about women related issues everything is alright in India
Results
-
