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An alumna of Kalakshetra filed a complaint of sexual harassment against a teacher, at the Adyar All Women Police Station on Friday.
Confirming the development, a senior official of the city police said the woman, who had studied from 2015 to 2019 and discontinued, has filed a written complaint against a teacher.
Students of the Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts, under Kalakshetra Foundation, formed a union on Thursday. They have also urged the Union Ministry of Culture to act against the director and the head of the dance department.
The students started a protest on Thursday, demanding the dismissal of four staff members accused of inappropriate behaviour and sexual abuse. Around 250 students began the protest during the morning prayer and boycotted the day’s examination.
In a letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Culture, sent early Friday, the students requested the immediate recognition of the union formed with Jisma K.K. as president and Sakthi Shivani as secretary. The letter said the current and former students had faced years of sexual and verbal harassment by Assistant Professor Hari Padman, and Repertory Artists Sanjit Lal, Sai Krishnan, and Sreenath. “Going beyond these four faculty members, students have faced body-shaming, verbal abuse, casteist remarks by the serving director, Revathi Ramachandran, and head of the dance department Dr. Jyotsna Menon,” it noted.
The letter said the affected students had refrained from going public for fear of retribution and dismissal from the institution. “Many students have attempted to raise these concerns and complain to Ms. Ramachandran, verbally, over the past five years during her directorship, but our concerns have been stonewalled,” the letter said. The complaints included written letters by a former student and three current students, and letters supportive of the complainants by a faculty member and a former student.
The students demanded action against Ms. Ramachandran and Dr. Menon and the constitution of an internal complaints committee (ICC), with an external presiding officer appointed by the governing board, in consultation with the students’ union. “The ICC must include a students’ representative decided by the union,” the letter said. Until the demands were met, the students decided to continue their sit-in.
On Friday, A.S. Kumari, Chairperson, State Commission for Women, visited the campus to inquire with the protesting students. On Wednesday, National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson Rekha Sharma visited Kalakshetra Foundation. The visit came after the NCW communicated to the Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police that it had decided to close the Kalakshetra complaint, based on media reports, and the fact that women refused to confirm sexual harassment at the ICC meeting. The NCW got involved in the matter on March 21, when it tweeted and asked the DGP to file an FIR against a teacher accused of sexually harassing minor students.
In a statement issued last week, Kalakshetra Foundation chairman S. Ramadorai had said the ICC had suo motu initiated an inquiry and found the charges of sexual harassment baseless.
On Friday, Additional Commissioner of Police (South) Prem Anand Sinha told presspersons that last week, information was received that a sexual harassment complaint was received by the NCW, which inquired into the issue and gave a report. The NCW later informed that it was closing this case. An agitation began this week and intensified, with 50-60 students staging a sit-in on the campus on Thursday night. The city police have deployed their personnel outside the campus, he added.
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