Hi

Hi I am Vishishta and I am one of the externs from Kerala.

As part of my individual project, I am looking at the implementation of the Vishakha guidelines in universities across Kerala.

The Vishakha guidelines are a set of guidelines that the Supreme Court of India laid down way back in 1997 to protect women from sexual harassement at workplaces. The guidelines are just a framework given by the Court and I feel that each university should frame individual guidelines keeping in mind the structure of the institution. Sadly enough little has been done about this issue.

I am trying to cover three universities in Kerala on geographical parameters they are as follows: Kerala University (south), Calicut University (north) and Mahatma Gandhi University (central).

I started the project in my own university. To my surprise the Kerala University framed fancy guidelines in 2001 (which I obviously had never heard of). They framed it for sure, put it down on paper for sure but somewhere down the line they just forgot to implement it properly. This is what I had jotted down in my blog at the end of the first week

“The first week has been crazy.

Going in search of the Kerala University guidelines on sexual harassment is not as easy as I had thought it to be. I’m not amazed at the reservations that the UniversityOfficials have expressed in handing over the documents, but you know, there is a world of a difference between foreseeing something and actuallyexperiencing it.

Bureaucracy and the subsequent paper works that followed it, managed to dampen my spirits a bit. By Thursday I almost felt like killing someone. In the middle of it all I kept thinking to myself as to how difficult it would be for anyone one to come forward and even register a complaint with the sexual harassment committee at this rate. Guidelines, circulars, notifications that are published by the University every year, these very documents that are put on every notice board only to be taken off with the passage of time when the ink runs off the paper, What is so classified about
these documents??? Sadly enough, for something that should be given maximum publicity, the university officials were just cringing at the idea of even handing over the files for a quick read.

And it didn’t really help when one particularly unrelenting committee member made a statement as follows
“we try to settle all the matters amicably otherwise people might end up losing their
jobs”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn’t even know how to react to that statement
First rule of conducting an interview, never express your opinion. And I didn’t, atleast at that point in time

I need to keep a check on myself.

But it just took a toll on me, by the end of the week; I must have looked like someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I was partially lecturing another committee member but she was kind enough to give me a good hearing and STILL give me the history behind the formation of the committee and its functioning. We
talked about the social outlook on such issues and the reasons for the
ineffectiveness of the committee. But I won’t forget what she said as I
got up to leave
“we have to make the guidelines and the workings of the
committee more known. But we also have to shape the mindset of a whole
generation. There has to be a greater sense of civil society and greater
responsibility of consciousness in civil society, like witnesses should not turn
hostile when asked to testify a victim’s claim before a committee. And I feel
that the most responsive lot are the students themselves, we should make an
effort to start a change with them”
Amen”

That was three weeks back, now with the questionnaire prepared and a few interviews conducted in the Kerala University I ventured into the Calicut University campus last Wednesday.

The university came under a lot of flak in 1999-2000 for mishandling P Usha’s case. (I hope you guys find this link interesting http://www.sacw.net/2002/FeministPolKerala.html). I had been warned before hand of hostile committee members but man were they rude.
One committee member asked me not to contact her at all. The other one got up half way through the interview on the pretext of urgent personal meeting. Yet another committee member refuses to speak to me till I get the registrars permission.... its insane but its true. I am presently dealing with a bunch of ********.

All this really helps considering the fact that the Calicut university does not have separate guidelines. Everything from the appointment of the committee members to the final outcome of the case is so arbitrary and stepped in political overtones.

The journey has just begun.