Calicut University’s female students who had complained to the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court and the state Governor about the harassment inside the campus have got strong support from the university’s teaching faculty. You can read about the harassment complaint here.
On Saturday, after the University senate passed a resolution to take action against six girls who initiated a complaint against the harassment they reportedly faced within the campus, a teachers’ association in the university has written to the Governor to suspend the senate decision.
“The resolution is a blatant attempt to publicly malign and threaten these girls, who showed the courage to bring to the notice of the higher authorities the atrocities being committed against women in the university campus. With such action, the senate has proved itself to be not only anti-woman but also in active collusion with the perpetrators of the atrocities,“ Dr P Sivadasan, secretary of Association of Calicut University Teachers (ACT), the largest teachers' organisation in the campus, said in the memorandum, The Times of India reports.
On Saturday university senate had passed a resolution to take action against the girls who gave a memorandum to Governor and Chief Justice seeking protection from the harassments and attacks against girls inside campus.
The resolution was moved by a representative of Muslim Students' Federation (MSF), the student wing of IUML and since the senate had MSF majority the resolution was passed even as KSU (student wing of the Congress) and SFI (student wing of CPIM) strongly opposed it.
Protests were held by the SFI and KSU in the campus against the resolution.
The resolution said that the girls violated chapter 5, section 7 of CU first statute, 1977, (admissibility of resolutions 7, 10), which says that matters pending before any statutory tribunal or statutory authority shall not be brought before the court.
In the senate meeting, the MSF also revealed the identity of the girls including victims’ name, which can be considered as a serious lapse.
However Vice Chancellor of the university has informed that there will not be any action against the students, and that no action can be taken based on it as majority of senate members had political affiliations.
Last week around 450 girl students of Calicut University had written a memorandum to Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court and Governor P Sathasivam, who is also the Chancellor of the University, saying that they face mental and physical harassment and assault by male students in specific departments and outsiders.