The Hindu : Lady lecturers pick up gauntlet against male colleague

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004

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Other States - Rajasthan

Lady lecturers pick up gauntlet against male colleague

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, MARCH 17. Two lady lecturers of the Government College in Banswara have seemingly been "punished'' with transfers to far-flung areas in Rajasthan for taking up cudgels against the overtures of a male colleague over a period.

The case assumes significance not only because Rajasthan has been a pioneering State in seeking judicial intervention in cases of sexual harassment but also due to the fact that it has a woman Chief Minister now for the first time.

The women, one teaching botany and the other political science in the Banswara Government college, a co-educational institution with a teaching staff strength of nearly 75, are not alone as there are nine colleagues under threat of transfer from the politically powerful male colleague who is a lecturer in English literature, for what is explained as their "temerity'' to complain.

The lady lecturers the other day submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, seeking action against their colleague, Mahipal Singh Rao. The women in their memorandum have complained that while they were being punished with transfers to Jaisalmer and Dholpur, the accused who was transferred last year had been brought back to the college.

The lecturers, Alka Deepak Jonathan and Pratibha Panda, who were introduced to mediapersons here by Srilata Swaminathan, president of the All India Progressive Women's Association, said the sexual innuendoes from Mahipal Singh had only increased after his return to the college.

After their written complaint in April 2003, the then District Collector after an enquiry into the charges had ordered the transfer of Mahipal Singh in June. "With the change of Government in the State, Mahipal Singh has seemingly assumed a new verve,'' Ms. Swaminathan, who sought his suspension from service, said. "His strength seemingly comes from one Phool Chand Bhinda, a functionary in the State Education Department, who mostly sits in the Bharatiya Janata Party office here,'' she added.

The lady lecturers pointed out that Mahipal Singh did not miss any chance to accost his female colleagues and always threatened them with consequences whenever they tried to complain to the higher authorities.

The Principal of the college, though initially sympathetic, had seemingly cowed down to the aggressive behaviour of Mahipal Singh, who uses a section of the students too to add to his clout on the campus, they charged.

Ms. Swaminathan said that even after clear orders from the Supreme Court, most of the institutions in the State had not yet set up grievance committees that were meant to take up the cases of sexual harassment of working women. The existing committees in Rajasthan had male members outnumbering the females, she pointed out.

Ironically, the women's organisations of Rajasthan were behind the historic case, Vishaka versus the Government of Rajasthan, and others in which the Supreme Court had given the landmark ruling in August 1997 formulating guidelines for safeguarding the interest of women in the work place.

The court, seized of the infamous Bhanwari Devi case then, had ruled that the guidelines would be treated as law till Parliament enacts a law on the subject.

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