Kalakshetra, one of India’s premier institutions for the performing arts in Chennai, has its doors locked as hundreds of students came out to protest against the way the management handled their complaints of sexual harassment against four male dance teachers.
The students are waiting to hear from the police and state women’s commission on action to be taken against the alleged perpetrators.
“We are hopeful that we will have some results by Monday so that we can resume our exams,” said one of the protesting students.
On Saturday, the Chennai police booked an assistant professor after an alumna, who studied at the centre from 2015 to 2019, filed a written complaint against the teacher alleging sexual harassment inside the campus. Based on the complaint letter, the women’s police station in Adyar registered a case against him under Section 354A (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code and invoked different provisions of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act against him.
Students of Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts, under Kalakshetra Foundation, have been demanding the dismissal of four male staff members, who they alleged had behaved inappropriately and sexually abused students both physically and verbally for some years now.
The protesters have decided to call off their stir as they are awaiting action by the Chennai police and state women’s commission, which has received over 90 written complaints by Kalakshetra students.
News18 has learnt that a memorandum of complaints along with emails of students alleging sexual abuse and harassment inside the campus has also been submitted to the Kalakshetra managemen. A student, on condition of anonymity, told News18 that they were giving all agencies adequate time to conduct a free and fair investigation into the matter.
“We are seeking justice and will not rest until we get it. We are giving all the agencies time to conduct a free and fair investigation and not be done hurriedly. We want to ensure that every student that has faced harassment, has their complaint addressed. We are patiently awaiting justice as the outcome,” said the student.
The students kicked off their protest on Thursday by boycotting morning prayers at 8 am and the day’s examination, seeking immediate intervention and dismissal of the teachers involved. They have also formed a union to show solidarity with the “victims of abuse” and have urged the ministry of culture to take action against Kalakshetra’s director Revathi Ramachandran, head of the dance department Dr Jyotsna Menon and four other male teachers.
In a letter to the secretary of the ministry, the students have named four faculty members, who have allegedly harassed students verbally and sexually. The students said though they had tried to raise these issues over the past five years with Ramachandran, they had been “stonewalled”.
“These incidents pertain to an instance of decades of sexual abuse and allegations by current and former students. These instances involve several serving male teachers at the institution, one of whom has been here for close to two decades,” the letter stated.
“Going beyond these four faculty members, students have faced body-shaming, verbal abuse, casteist remarks by the serving director, Revathi Ramachandran, and head of the dance department Dr Jyotsna Menon,” it further said.
The students also formally requested the ministry to give immediate recognition to the union formed with Jisma KK as president and Sakthi Shivani as secretary of the union. An email has been sent to Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin seeking his immediate intervention and action against “abusive faculty members”.
Stalin has assured that he has set in motion a series of actions, including deputing a police team led by a joint police commissioner and deputy police commissioner of Chennai, to visit the campus and conduct a detailed probe.
“If anyone is found to be guilty, definite action will be taken against them,” Stalin said, adding that a women’s police security team has also been deployed in Kalakshetra for students’ safety on campus and hostels.
The students decided to join in the protests after Kalakshetra, in a letter dated March 19, stated that its internal complaints committee (ICC), which had suo motu initiated an investigation, found no truth in the complaints. Based on this, the National Commission for Women (NCW), which had directed the Tamil Nadu DGP Sylendra Babu to file an FIR against the alleged perpetrator and Ramachandran, withdrew this direction in a tweet and closed the matter.
Until recently, the Chennai police had said it was unable to take up the case as it had not received a single complaint from a victim.
“There is a sense of fear among students to raise their voice. If we raise an issue or complaint, we are ostracised, or targeted and the officials then threaten us with a transfer certificate and force us to leave,” the students said.
The Tamil Nadu women’s commission chairperson AS Kumari, who visited the students on campus, said: “Many women said they had faced harassment on the campus since 2008. We have received close to a hundred complaints, including those of sexual harassment. We will initiate action as per law.”
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