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(India) Sexual misconduct in Indian higher education: the elephant in the room? – Times Higher Education (Pola Lem | January 2023)

Posted by Connar Allen in Research Integrity on February 26, 2023
Keywords: Institutional responsibilities, International

The Linked Original Item was Posted On January 5, 2023

An artistically stressed Indian flag.

While training courses and complaints bodies have been implemented across the subcontinent, their effectiveness in addressing harassment is widely questioned. Could more be done – or will female students and academics have to wait for a patriarchal generation to retire, asks Pola Lem

This September, hundreds of outraged students in the Indian state of Punjab took to the streets in a demonstration that would result in the week-long closure of a university.

The reported events and behaviour are simply shocking and sickening. What an invasion of personal privacy and decency. Circumstances like this are not a time for an institution to ‘circle the wagons’ and deny any culpability. Instead, they should be regarded as an opportunity to reflect upon the institution’s approach to professional development and guidance material concerning sexual harassment and personal privacy. Having great systems in this regard should be a component of an institution’s code of conduct for students and staff.

 A female student had allegedly filmed other female classmates bathing in campus dorms at Chandigarh University, a private institution on the border of Haryana and Punjab states. The student later shared the clips with her boyfriend and another man, who were said to have posted the footage online. As rumours escalated on social media (including that some of the women filmed had killed themselves) and the alleged perpetrators were arrested, administrators issued firm denials, saying that they had found no evidence of videos taken without consent.

But the response prompted a huge backlash. “Instead of trying to assure us of our safety, the administration has been busy trying to salvage its image by denying anything happened,” one student told the BBC.

Whatever the truth of the incident, the emotion that it generates underlines what a sensitive subject sexual harassment and related issues have become in India. In another example from a month later, a video went viral showing male students scaling the gates and walls of a women’s college at the prestigious University of Delhi. Students later claimed the men cat-called and groped them, according to local media.

Sexual misconduct in Indian higher education: the elephant in the room?
While training courses and complaints bodies have been implemented across the subcontinent, their effectiveness in addressing harassment is widely questioned. Could more be done – or will female students and academics have to wait for a patriarchal generation to retire, asks Pola Lem

Related Reading

(UK) Higher education must stop covering up misconduct – Times Higher Education (Julie Macfarlane | January 2022)

(US) More than 70 lab heads removed from NIH grants after harassment findings – Science (Jocelyn Kaiser | June 2021)

(US) Sexual misconduct legal battle raises questions about microbe researcher’s work – Science (Gretchen Vogel | February 2020)

Why sexual harassment needs tougher punishment – Nature (Gemma Conroy | December 2019)

NSF tallies 16 cases of alleged harassment by grantees in first year of new rules – Science (Jeffrey Mervis | October 2019)

(US) US biomedical agency has investigated hundreds claims of inappropriate conduct this year – Nature (Nidhi Subbaraman | December 2019)

(US) National Academy of Sciences to allow expulsion of harassers – Science (Meredith Wadman | June 2019)

(US) NIH apologizes for its failure to address sexual harassment in science – STAT (Lev Facher | February 2019)

Sexual harassment rife in Australian science, suggests first workplace survey – Science (February 2019)

#MeToo and Health Research Ethics – The Hastings Center (Kathleen Bachynski | March 2019)

(US) This neuroscientist is fighting sexual harassment in science – but her own job is in peril – Science (By Meredith Wadmam | February 2019)

(US) ‘It’s time for systemic change’: Scientific leaders urge new efforts to curb sexual harassment in the field – STAT (Megan Thielking | September 2018)

(US) NIH set to strengthen its sexual-harassment policies – Nature (Sara Reardon | September 2018)

Sexual misconduct in academia: reassessing the past – Times Higher Education (‘Collaborators’ | May 2018)

Will U.S. academies expel sexual harassers? – Science (May 2018 | Meredith Wadman)

Harassment should count as scientific misconduct – Nature (Erika Marín-Spiotta | May 2018)

#UsToo movement targets sexual harassment in science – Chemistry World (Rebecca Trager | February 2018)

Science Suffers from Harassment – Scientific American (The Editors | January 2018)

Harassment in the Field – Inside Higher Ed (Colleen Flaherty | October 2017)

I was assaulted while researching, but was too scared to speak out – The Guardian (Academics Anonymous | December 2016)

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