Opinion Sexual harassment victim in Balasore spoke up. The system refused to listen

Why did you not speak up? Implicit in this question, put to those who have faced sexual harassment and abuse, is the assumption that breaking a silence leads, inevitably, to justice. The young woman who died this week in Balasore, Odisha, three days after she set herself on fire, spoke up. She named her alleged harasser, a professor, to the internal complaints committee of her college. She filed a complaint with the police. Yet, she was let down, driven to despair by a system that she trusted. The question that must now be answered is this: Why was this young woman not heard?

The police have arrested the accused professor on charges of abetment to suicide, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation, among others. The principal of the college, too, is in custody on the charge of abetment to suicide. Both had already been suspended from the college following the young woman’s self-immolation on Saturday. The law must now take its course, but the larger questions looming over this tragedy — about institutional responsibility and accountability, of power asymmetries that take a high toll on those who speak out against abuse — cannot be ignored. It must be asked why, 12 years after the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act was passed — marking what seemed to be a turning point in the long-drawn, painful confrontation with the dismal phenomenon of sexual harassment and violence that women routinely endure — complaints still appear to fall on deaf ears. Questions of institutional failure and lack of sensitivity can no longer be evaded. As the Supreme Court pointed out in 2023, when it issued directions for a “time-bound exercise” to verify whether all public and private bodies are compliant with the PoSH Act, a law alone cannot ensure “dignity and respect”. Investigation will reveal what the college in Balasore did, and did not do, after the student complained of sexual harassment. But beyond this one college, beyond Odisha, other institutions, too, are stakeholders in building a safe environment for women — it’s time they looked at how far they’ve gone, how far they have been willing to go, to ensure that women can study, work and travel safely.

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Back in December 2012, shaken by the death of a young woman in Delhi after a gruesome incident of sexual assault, there appeared to be a strong public resolve to push for change. It has periodically flared up since then, such as during the MeToo movement of 2018 and in 2023, when there was a swell of public support for the wrestlers who had accused a powerful politician of sexual harassment. In almost every case, it has been driven by women who refused to be silenced. They’ve spoken up, over and over again. It is time for the system to listen, and respond.