Women’s groups demand Thampu’s removal

“The undersigned women’s organisations strongly condemn the role played by St Stephen’s College principal, Rev Valson Thampu, in his alleged attempt to prevent and misdirect a PhD scholar from filing a complaint of sexual harassment with the college’s internal complaints committee (ICC),” John read from a press statement.

[related-post]

Their demands include the immediate removal of Thampu, reassigning of the PhD superviser and release of the complainant’s monthly stipend which has allegedly been withheld since November 2014, reviewing of the accused’s anticipatory bail by the High Court, reintroduction of Ordinance XV-D and the constitution of a committee by the Ministry of Women & Child Development to review the functioning of the Sexual Harassment in Workplace (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2013.

These will be submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, National Commission for Women, DU Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh and the Commissioner of Delhi Police.

John also condemned the “arbitrary removal” of Ordinance XV-D in 2014, calling it a more accountable system. “Despite opposition from the larger DU community, the university arbitrarily replaced its Ordinance XV-D with the new Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2013. This Act prescribes the system of nominated ICCs that are handpicked by the employer/heads of institution, and are less accountable as a result,” she said.

John argued that the college administration had created an “ambience of rampant sexual harassment and impunity within its community” by mishandling previous such cases. She cited an example from 2011-12 when the college allegedly refused to abide by the recommendations of the University’s Apex Committee which had pressed for punitive action against the librarian accused of sexually harassing the assistant librarian.

Dr Giti Chandra, the chairman of the internal complainants committee in 2011-12, said she was not in the committee which decided the action for the case but thinks that the librarian was found not guilty. “If my memory serves me right, the librarian was found not guilty of the crime and therefore no action was taken,” she said.

John also said that in 2010, the college’s complaint committee had recommended that an office karamchari be permanently removed so as to stop his direct association with female students, but he continued to work.

“The current case is indicative of how blatantly complainants of sexual harassment are misdirected by their institutions and how they are victimised by heads of institutions who are more concerned with protecting the image of the institution rather than ensuring that justice is provided to such complainants,” John said.

The women’s organisations, along with other student and karamchari organisations, will hold a protest outside St Stephen’s College on Monday at 11.30 am.