Dalit Intellectual Collective probed sexual harassment allegations against a professor in Government Arts College, Ooty, and caste and gender-based discrimination a Dalit woman faculty faced at the workplace following a complaint.
A fact-finding report by Dalit Intellectual Collective (DIC) has found serious violations of norms in the conduct of inquiry by the Internal Committee (IC) into allegations of sexual harassment made by a Dalit faculty member of Government Arts College, Ooty, against a professor. The report has observed that the complaints against the professor were not uploaded to the University Grants Commission (UGC) website, as mandated.
It also accused the former principal of the college — Eswaramoorthy — who also belongs to the Badaga community — of protecting the harassert because they belong to the same caste. The report by the DIC, which enquired the allegations of harassment faced by Praveena Devi, a professor in the college against her colleague Dharmalingam, and the institution’s response to it was made available in the first week of January 2023.
The DIC also found that the enquiry report of IC conducted on March 10, 2022 was submitted to the principal on March 14, 2022 but was not forwarded to the Director, Directorate of Collegiate Education, Chennai.
“It has been found that there is a clear pattern now in the Tamil Nadu Government higher educational institutions that the Dalit faculty members are systematically targeted, humiliated, abused and harassed—mentally and physically. Thus, neither the government nor civil society tries to address these Casteist atrocities existing in higher educational institutions and among authorities,” said the report.
The seven-member fact-finding team including C Lakshmanan, an associate professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), probed various issues that pertained to the Ooty college including the sexual harassment allegations. They also looked into a week-long protest by Badaga guest lecturers against Praveena Devi and severe allegations of discrimination against Scheduled Caste members and irregularities in the appointments of guest lecturers.
The DIC probed in detail the sexual harassment allegations against Dharmalingam and the systematic caste and gender-based discrimination Praveena Devi faced, nearly for a year, at the workplace after her complaint against him. The committee also inquired into the alleged favouritism shown to Dharmalingam by Eswaramoorthy, who belongs to the Badaga community, when he was principal.
Read: TN Dalit prof faces hostile workplace after sexual harassment complaint
Praveena was at an inspection along with Eswaramoorthy and Dharmalingam when the latter allegedly made sexually coloured remarks against her and commented on her sex life on February 23, 2022. When she raised the issue with the principal Eswaramoorthy on the next day, he accepted that what Dharmalingam had done was wrong and that he would notify the IC against sexual harassment regarding her complaint. On February 25, Eswaramoorthy informed her over a phone call that he received an apology letter from Dharmalingam and would forward a copy of it to the IC and to her after he returned to college from his vacation.
But on February 28, Praveena learned from the IC head A Lourdu Mary that no such notification nor an apology letter had been sent. When Praveena asked Eswaramoorthy regarding this, he said oral complaints cannot be forwarded to the IC and requested a written complaint. He also refused to give the apology letter he claimed to have received from Dharmalingam, which she wanted to attach to her complaint.
The fact-finding team stated that Eswaramoorthy ordered the Special Enquiry Committee to conduct an inquiry on a counter-complaint given by Dharmalingam. The committee summoned Praveena to attend the inquiry without written notice. Dharmalingam accused her that she made a sexual harassment complaint against him just because he refused to lend her a loan amount of Rs. 2 lakh. ” It is clear that the inquiry was conducted to threaten Praveena and to force her to withdraw the complaint against Dharmalingam. She was humiliated during the inquiry,” the report observed, adding that the Special Enquiry Committee found no ‘evidence’ or ‘truth’ in Dharmalingam’s complaint against Praveena.
On April 15, Praveena lodged a complaint with the Ooty Town Central police station and with the Director of College Education (DCE) — a post then held by Poornachandran. Based on her complaint, the harasser was suspended on the same day by the DCE. The police booked Dharmalingam under sections 354 A (1) (iv) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) (making sexually coloured remarks, shall be guilty of the offence of sexual harassment) and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 sections 3 (1) (r), and 3 (2)(va). Dharmalingam is on conditional bail and the matter is sub-judice.
Eswaramoorthy was promoted to the Director of College Education on June 22. A transfer order was given to Praveena on September 27, while the matter was sub-judice. He also directed the Joint Regional Directorate of Collegiate Education (RJD-CE), Coimbatore to conduct another inquiry into the sexual harassment complaint against Dharmalingam. On July 21, the RJD sent a letter to Praveena and Dharmalingam to appear for an investigation on July 27 and 28. After conducting two days of inquiry, along with other faculty members, the RJD concluded that “there was no witness to prove the allegations made against Dharmalingam.” Based on this inquiry, Praveena and Dharmalingam were transferred to two different government colleges.
Praveena was transferred to Government Arts and Science, Kangeyam, which is 150 km away from Ooty and the college management noted the action was taken “to maintain harmony in the college campus”. The fact-finding observes that Praveena never disturbed the harmony of the college in her 18 years of service in the college. On October 7, Praveena obtained a stay order on her transfer from the Madras High Court, but the harassment continued.
When she returned to college with the stay order, she was told by J Ebanasar, the present principal in charge, that he had not received any notification from the DCE allowing her to resume her post. It took over a week for Praveena to finally resume classes on October 17. Meanwhile, Dharmalingam, after his transfer to Government Arts and Science College in Sathyamangalam, which is 90 km away from where he lives in Ooty, resumed his profession.
The DIC observed that the protest against Praveena by guest lecturers was an attempt at character assassination. “Without the support and instruction of Eswaramoorthy, the five-day protest would never have been possible”, it noted. It also said Praveena was subjected to both sexual harassment and caste-based atrocity and called Dharmalingam a habitual sexual offender and termed Eswaramoorthy’s behaviour towards the issue as very biased.
The fact-finding report highlighted how Eswaramoorthy misused his power as the principal of the college and later the DCE-in-charge to protect Dharmalingam and turned Badaga Guest lecturers against Praveena Devi. He “did not allow the IC inquiry report to be submitted in the stipulated time by instructing two committee members not to cooperate with the IC convenor”, the report noted.
The team also made several recommendations including suspension of Eswaramoorthy as “there are chances for his atrocities against the marginalised to continue, because of his casteist zeal”. The report also recommended dismissal of Dharmalingam from his post. It also demanded Praveena’s transfer order, for which she got the stay order from the Madras High Court, be revoked. Further, the team demanded registration of cases against the guest lecturers who protested against Praveena.
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Source: The News Minute