The revelation comes at a time when the University faces criticism over its lax attitude in dealing with several recent such cases.
As many as 12 cases of sexual harassment have been reported at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the last five months, DNA has learnt through an RTI query. Officials say the figure of 12 complaints within five months is the highest in the recent past. Most complaints are against male faculty members.
The revelation comes at a time when the University faces criticism over its lax attitude in dealing with several recent such cases.
In reply to an RTI query filed by DNA, JNU's newly formed Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), a mandatory autonomous body to deal with sexual harassment cases, is said to have received 12 cases between September 18, 2017 to February 15, 2018. The recent two cases — one from the School of Life Sciences and another School of International Studies — were reported in March.
The University has not maintained data regarding complaints of sexual harassment from April 2016 to September 2017 due to the tussle between students and administration over the latter's decision to replace the erstwhile redressal cell Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) with the ICC. The ICC come into effect on September 18, 2017.
As per the RTI response, JNU saw 25 reported cases of sexual harassment in the academic session 2013-14, 35 in 2014-15 and 42 in 2015-16 respectively.
The university has been in the eye of a storm since March 15, when a 26-year-old student at the School of Life Sciences (SLS) alleged her supervisor of harassing her. Afterwards, eight other female students from the same school filed multiple FIRs of sexual harassment against the same professor. He was arrested after multiple protests by students and teachers, but immediately granted bail. A week later, another case of alleged sexual harassment rocked the campus.
Calling it ICC's "failure", the student representatives of the disbanded GSCASH alleged that the body has not even initiated a process of restrain in the case. "Unlike the GSCASH, the ICC does not have a proper inquiry process. As far as we know they have not even initiated the restrain process of the concerned faculty members and this is a serious procedural violation," said Srabani Chakraborty, a student representative.
Despite several attempts via calls and messages, presiding officer of the ICC, Vibha Tandon did not respond or comment on the matter.
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