Ban on girls visiting professors’ houses

MUMBAI, February 23: The state department of higher education has banned female college students from visiting their male teachers' residenc...

MUMBAI, February 23: The state department of higher education has banned female college students from visiting their male teachers’ residences. This unprecedented order follows an enquiry report which found a professor guilty of sexually harassing a girl at the staff quarters in Kalina campus of Mumbai University.

City academicians’s reaction to the new regulation has been mixed. "This is a ridiculous stand taken by the state as you cannot throw a blanket ban on the entire teaching community just because a handful of teachers are bad. Take action against the guilty but do not make such impractical generalisations," said Amarjit Manhas, a Senate Member of Mumbai University.Professor Jeetendra Shah of VJTI shared Manhas’ view. "Though I have still not seen this circular in our college, it’s a tragedy that now such rules have to be made. This is the first sign of demise of the pious student-teacher relationship, and such policing will not solve the social problem," said Shah.

But Principal D B Kadam ofBhavan’s College (Andheri), supports the new rule. "The basic guidelines mentioned in the said circular — such as the principal should immediately start an enquiry after receiving a written complaint of harassment — only reflect on the growing cases of molestations in colleges. Hence I feel that it is okay to go one step further and ban girls from visiting their teachers’ homes," he said.

Principal R T Sane of Ramnarain Ruia College agreed. "Though the circular is yet to reach our college, I agree that students should be discouraged from going to their professors’ houses. I wouldn’t allow my daughter to go to any teacher’s house to study," he said.

The Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University, Dr Snehalata Deshmukh, also felt that students should be bold enough to ask questions in the class itself. "At the most they can meet the teachers in the staff-room to clear any doubts," she remarked.

Students, on the other hand, are rather amused. "Normally it is only the chamcha types who go to theirprofessors homes thinking that they’ll get more marks in exams; and sometimes professors do take advantage of such students, especially in engineering and medical colleges. So this circular is in the right direction," said a girl student of Somaiya Medical College.An FYBCom student of Sydenham College of Economics and Commerce, Namrata Bhawnani, added that the ban should also be extended to boys going to their teachers’ places. "Generally, though, such rules merely remain on paper," she said skeptically.

Speaking to Express Newsline on Monday, Deputy Secretary (Higher Education) S B Chindarkar said: "We had to issue this circular to all the educational institutes in the state as we had received several complaints of sexual harassment from various colleges."

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When asked how such a ban can stop the misuse of authority, Chindarkar (the circular bears his signature) said the decision was taken after detailed discussions with education officials, vice-chancellors and pro-vice chancellors.

Some of theother directives mentioned in the circular are that the principal should immediately take required action even on the smallest suspicion raised over the character of a teacher; and that the report should be sent to the joint director of higher education.

Senior educationist, V Shankar from SIES colleges, however, looks at the new rule as a retrograde step.

"Though we may be hurtling towards the next millennium, this circular issued by the ruling class has sent us reeling back to the Tughlaq period."