A few kilometres from the Kalakshetra Foundation’s campus in Chennai, several Left-leaning organisations held a protest on Monday, April 3, in solidarity with the survivors who have alleged sexual harassment by four men working at the institution. Members of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) gathered at the Thiruvanmiyur traffic signal to condemn the alleged procedural failures at Kalakshetra Foundation in addressing several students’ sexual harassment complaints, and to demand the arrest of all of the accused in the case.
On Monday, AIDWA, SFI and DYFI staged a protest demanding the arrests of the remaining three accused — Sanjith Lal, Sai Krishnan and Sreenath. The organisations also insisted that the protesting students must not face backlash or intimidation from the Kalakshetra administration.
Speaking to TNM, DYFI’s Chennai district secretary Chandru said, “When students are protesting as they have been doing, it is the duty of progressive organisations such as ourselves to stand with them. After someone comes forward saying an injustice has happened to them, they require moral support.”
“The initial response of the Kalakshetra administration was to try and make the survivor withdraw their complaint. Their actions suggest they were trying to protect the perpetrator,” he added. Chandru further pointed to the Kalakshetra administration’s failure to act against any of the four accused so far. “After so much has happened, why has there been no written dismissal or even a suspension order against them?” he asked.
Velachery secretary of AIDWA Chitraiselvi shared a recent interaction with the Director of Kalakshetra Foundation Revathi Ramachandran and condemned her response to the situation. “When we spoke to the Director during the night-long protest [on March 30], she claimed that the students were being instigated by two faculty members. She also claimed that the Foundation has on-campus counselling facilities arranged every three months, and since no student had complained to that counsellor, it meant that no sexual harassment had taken place,” Chitraiselvi said. “The director’s tone when speaking to us was extremely authoritarian and dismissive of the complaints,” she added.
Chitiraiselvi further said, “The students’ protests evolved naturally as they came together based on the increasing complaints of harassment. Nearly a hundred students have given complaints to the chair of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women. The state government needs to take cognisance of these complaints and ensure justice to the students. Hari Padman has been arrested now, but that is not enough. He should be punished by law and dismissed [from Kalakshetra]. The other three accused should be arrested as well.”
SFI Tamil Nadu joint secretary Bharathi told TNM that the actions of the National Commission for Women (NCW) were unacceptable. “The NCW seems to be deliberately ignoring the harassment complaints. It was only because of the students’ protests that the level of harassment that went on inside Kalakshetra has been revealed to the outside world. SFI now demands that the other three accused are also arrested. All four of the accused need to be dismissed. That they have not been dismissed yet reflects how badly the Kalakshetra administration is functioning,” she said.
Speaking at the protest, R Radhika, Tamil Nadu general secretary of AIDWA, said, “The Tamil Nadu Assembly must convene a special session to address the issue of repeated sexual harassment of women and children. The special session needs to pass resolutions to ensure severe punishment for the perpetrators. Also, adequate protection must be provided to survivors who come forward, and the police must investigate the complaints with sincerity.”