A Dalit professor at the Government Arts College in Tamil Nadu’s Ooty has alleged caste and gender based discrimination at the workplace after she accused a colleague of sexual harassment. Praveena Devi says she has been facing a hostile work environment, with several of her colleagues who belong to the same caste as her harasser Dharmalingam, running a campaign against her at the college. She got a stay from the Madras High Court on a transfer order given in September this year; despite this, other teachers at the college created a ruckus to stop her from taking classes, she has alleged.
Praveena, who teaches in the English department at the Government Arts College in Ooty, filed a sexual harassment complaint in February this year against her colleague, Dharmalingam from the Tamil department. Dharmalingam belongs to the Badaga caste and was found guilty of sexual harassment by the Internal Committee (IC) of the college. Praveena was at an inspection along with Dharmalingam and the then college principal Eswaramoorthy — who also belongs to the Badaga community — when Dharmalingam allegedly made sexually coloured remarks against her and commented on her sex life.
When she raised the issue with the principal Eswaramoorthy on February 24, the day after the incident, “He accepted that what Dharmalingam had done was wrong and that he would notify the IC against sexual harassment regarding my complaint,” Praveena told TNM. Praveena said that on February 25, Eswaramoorthy informed her over a phone call that he received an apology letter from Dharmalingam and would forward a copy of it to the IC and to her after he returned to college from his vacation.
But on February 28 Praveena learned from the IC head A Lourdu Mary that no such notification nor an apology letter had been sent. When Praveena asked Eswaramoorthy regarding this, he said oral complaints cannot be forwarded to the IC and asked her to give a written complaint. He also refused to give the apology letter he claimed to have received from Dharmalingam, to attach to her complaint. On March 2, Praveena filed a written complaint, which was forwarded to the IC. On March 10, the IC inquired into the incident with Praveena and Dharmalingam.
On March 11, in the IC report, the committee found Dharmalingam guilty and also noted down the complaints against him from other professors and students. As per the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, an IC in any organisation must accept complaints of sexual harassment or misconduct, and begin an inquiry into the matter. The IC can recommend to the administration to take action against the harasser as per service rules, or deduct adequate sums from the harasser’s salary within 60 days of the IC inquiry. But Eswaramoorthy took no action against Dharmalingam.
On April 15, without much progress after the IC inquiry, Praveena lodged a complaint with the Ooty Town Central police station and with the Director of College Education (DCE) — a post then held by Poornachandran. Based on her complaint, the harasser was suspended on the same day by the DCE. The police booked Dharmalingam under sections 354 A (1) (iv) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) (making sexually coloured remarks, shall be guilty of the offence of sexual harassment) and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 sections 3 (1) (r), and 3 (2)(va). Dharmalingam is on conditional bail and the matter is sub-judice.
But Praveena’s ordeal didn’t stop there as Eswaramoorthy, who tried to protect the harasser, was promoted to DCE (in charge) on June 22.
Eswaramoorthy ordered the Joint Regional Directorate of Collegiate Education (RJD-CE), Coimbatore to conduct another inquiry into the sexual harassment complaint against Dharmalingam. “There is no provision in the Act to surpass the IC report to constitute a new committee for the same allegations,” said Praveena’s lawyer Rajaguru, speaking to TNM. “If the harasser needs to challenge the IC report or action, he should approach the court only,” he explained.
On July 21, the RJD sent a letter to Praveena and Dharmalingam to appear for an investigation on July 27 and 28. After conducting two days of inquiry, along with other faculty members, the RJD concluded that “there was no witness to prove the allegations made against Dharmalingam.”
“The RJD inquiry itself can be called bogus because it was a single-person committee with Dr Ulagi, which again violated the Workplace Sexual Harassment Act, which directs an IC to have a minimum of four members and for the presiding officer to be from amongst the employees. The law also states that half of the total members of the IC committee should be women,” said Rajaguru.
Based on this inquiry, Praveena and Dharmalingam were transferred to two different government colleges on September 27. Praveena was issued a transfer order to Government Arts and Science College, Kangeyam, which is 150 km away from her home in Ooty. On October 7, Praveena obtained a stay order on her transfer from the Madras High Court, but the harassment continued, Praveena alleged.
When she returned to college with the stay order, she was told by J Ebanasar, the present principal in charge, that he had not received any notification from the DCE allowing her to resume her post. It took over a week for Praveena to finally resume conducting classes on October 17. Meanwhile, Dharmalingam, after his transfer to Government Arts and Science College in Sathyamangalam, which is 90 km away from where he lives in Ooty, resumed his profession.
According to Praveena, Dharmalingam habitually spoke disparagingly about her marriage to a Badaga man. The Badaga caste is listed under the Other Backward Classes category in Tamil Nadu, and is numerically dominant in the region. Praveena alleged that Dharmalingam used casteist slurs against her on many occasions. “He asked me once how I, a Dalit woman, could have married a man from his Badaga community,” she said.
After she lodged the complaint against Dharmalingam, she was approached multiple times for the ‘compromise’ discussion. “But I refused, and therefore, they tried to twist the case, claiming I filed a false complaint against him because he denied me a loan,” Praveena said.
On August 30, News J, a Tamil news channel telecast a story on sexual harassment and abuse inside the college. News J named both Dharmalingam, who had harassed Praveena, and a guest lecturer. However, the allegations against the guest lecturer reported by News J had nothing to do with Praveena, but came from two unnamed former students, according to the news channel. Students staged a protest against the sexual misconduct and abuse happening in the college on September 29, two days after Praveena was issued a transfer order.
Speaking to TNM, one of the students who protested said, “We protested mainly against the sexual harassment against the girls and women faculty members in the college.” He said that he came to know about Praveena’s transfer order hours after the protest. “Praveena is very student-friendly and supportive, so the college administration tried to connect her with the students’ agitation,” he said.
Two weeks after she resumed her post, on October 31, guest lecturers from the Badaga community staged a protest against Praveena and demanded an unconditional apology from her. They claimed that she instigated protests by the students against the college administration. ‘Apologise’, ‘Don’t spoil the college name’, and ‘Don’t do sexual harassment drama’ were some of the slogans raised by the guest lecturers during the protest. The protest continued till November 4.
Praveena said the protest was not shocking at all. She told TNM that the college management wants to frame her as a threat to the harmony of the college, which will strengthen the reasons to transfer her out. She denied she had anything to do with the students’ protest.
TNM contacted Sreedharan, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers Association (TNGCTA), to know the severity of the caste-based discrimination inside the campus. “Dharmalingam has verbally abused faculty members and students who belong to SC/ST communities. Eswaramoorthy is trying to protect Dharmalingam just because both of them belong to the Badaga community,” he said.
Sreedharan was working as an assistant professor in the Chemistry department when Praveena made a complaint against Dharmalingam and was one of the staff members who insisted that Eswaramoorthy take action against the harasser. Sreedharan was transferred to another college on administrative grounds on July 9. “I raised questions about the non-qualified guest lecturers with fake PhD certificates being appointed in the college and I stood with the survivor, so I was transferred to Dindigul,” he alleged, adding, “The move was deliberate because I’m a Dalit.”
“In April he was suspended and by September his suspension was revoked. Is this even a departmental action against the harasser?” asked professor Kathiravan, president of the Tamil Nadu Universities College SC/ST Teachers’ Association. “This is not a new scenario but due to the failures of the Higher Education Department, women faculty members and students in many colleges across the state are facing such harassment,” he added. According to him, there is no proper mechanism that has been developed for faculty members and students to come forward and complain about sexual harassment and to provide safety to survivors.
Professor Lakshmanan, National Convenor of the Dalit Intellectual Collective, told TNM that this is not an isolated event. “Dalit faculty members in many government colleges across the state continuously face such issues. But it is very unfortunate to see a Dalit woman professor having to fight for her rights alone without any support,” he said. “The guest lecturers’ protest sends a clear threat to the girl students and women faculty members to discourage victims from making complaints against harassment,” he added.